Conditions: Migraine Migraine With Aura Migraine Without Aura
Keywords: Migraine Headache
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 18
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to see if ramelteon will reduce the number of migraine headaches over a 12 week period. The safety and tolerability of ramelteon will also be evaluated. Ramelteon has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia (trouble sleeping); however; ramelteon has not been approved for the prevention of migraines.

Detailed description:
Sleep has played an important role in migraine. Younger migraine sufferers usually report relief of migraine after sleep. In older migraine sufferers migraine is sometimes triggered with sleep changes. Occurrence of migraine in the early morning is very common. Therefore in these individuals regulation of sleep may improve the frequency of migraine. Recent PET studies done during migraine demonstrated activation of hypothalamus during migraine. In light of this new data and the known action of ramelteon on the melatonin receptors it may theoretically provide an insight on a possible mechanism of action in migraine.

Arms:
arm 1: Ramelteon once daily (double-blind assignment) arm 2: Placebo tablet, once daily (double-blind assignment)

Interventions: intervention 1: Ramelteon intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 8 mg tablet, oral, once daily intervention 2: Placebo tablet, oral, once daily

Protocol document: