Treatment of migraine related vertigo with lamotrigine an observational study.

Migraine is a common cause of vertigo. The vertigo symptoms often occur independently of the headaches and have very variable duration and phenomenology. Treatment usually consists in giving prophylactic anti-migraineous medication. The anti-epileptic drug Lamotrigine (LTG) has been reported to be effective in treating migraine auras, isolated auras and to some extend migraine headaches. In this retrospective observational study, 19 patients, 6 male and 13 female, aged 52.3 years (range 28-84) treated with LTG and suffering from migraine and migraine related vertigo were evaluated. After a titration phase of 4 weeks patients took 100 mg of Lamotrigine per day in a single dose and were followed up for 3-4 months. The average vertigo frequency per month was significantly reduced from 18.1 to 5.4, the average headache frequency per month was reduced from 8.7 to 4.4 without reaching statistical significance. Lamotrigine at a daily dose of 100 mg seems to be effective in the treatment of migraine related vertigo. The effect on vertigo was more marked than on headaches.