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CompletedNCT01230411intravenousUpdated Sep 6, 2022Results posted

Pilot Study to Collect and Evaluate Data on the Use of IV* Ibuprofen in the Treatment of an Acute Migraine Attack

A Phase 4 interventional study of saline placebo and Ibuprofen in Episodic Migraine, sponsored by Thomas Jefferson University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-09-06.

Sponsored by Thomas Jefferson University · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
44
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

This is a pilot trial to collect data on the use of intravenous ibuprofen (IVIb) in the treatment of an acute migraine attack. Data will be collected on the efficacy of IVIb in subjects who are treated with study medication between 2 and 72 hours from time of onset of headache.

Periodic safety and efficacy assessments will be performed prior to and after study drug administration.

Null hypothesis: There is no difference in the proportion of subjects in the 2 treatment groups (active treatment and placebo) who have pain relief at 2 hours after the completion of the double-blind treatment infusion. Pain relief is defined as a reduction in headache pain level from severe or moderate decreased to mild or headache-free, respectively.

Read the detailed description

This is a 3 visit trial: screening visit, treatment visit, and final visit. Screening visit and a treatment visit may occur on the same day. Additionally, there will be one follow-up phone call at 24 hours post-dose. Subjects will be screened and the investigator will determine whether or not the subject experiences episodic migraine headaches. When a potential subject is seen as an office patient at the Jefferson Headache Center, has a headache, and is referred by the PI or co-investigator to this study, the referring study physician will document that the subject's cognition is intact and the subject is able to understand and sign the informed consent at that time. If the potential subject's cognition is affected by the migraine, the subject must return to the Jefferson Headache Center for the research screening visit when the headache and cognitive difficulties have resolved. Subjects who are not being seen as an office patient on the day of screening must be headache-free at the time of screening.

Those subjects who meet the qualifying criteria will be eligible for treatment in the study. Subjects who qualify will be asked to come to the Jefferson Headache Center within 2 to 72 hours following the onset of pain.

IVIb or placebo will be administered intravenously as the study treatment. For active treatment, 800 mg of injectable ibuprofen will be placed in 250 ml of normal saline, and infused over 7-10 minutes. (Infusion time may be increased up to 1 hour if necessary due to possible anatomical restrictions). The placebo group will receive 250 ml of normal saline, infused over 7-10 minutes. (Infusion time may be increased up to 1 hour if necessary due to possible anatomical restrictions). Safety and efficacy assessments will be made periodically just prior to and after administration of study drug. Migraine pain and associated symptom assessments will be measured by the subjects for 24 hours from the administration of study drug for the treated attack. If subjects still have a moderate to severe headache at 2 hours after receiving double-blind study drug, they will receive a rescue dose of 800 mg. IV Ibuprofen. Subjects will be discharged at 4 hours post study drug dose, or when clinically indicated.

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Conditions studied

  • Episodic Migraine

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Keywords

  • Episodic migraine
03

In context

Migraine Disorders

1,528 studies on the registry are indexed under Migraine Disorders; 299 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 44 is below the median of 80 across 1,175 interventional studies indexed under Migraine Disorders.

Browse Migraine Disorders studies →

Lead sponsor

Thomas Jefferson University is the lead sponsor of 384 studies on the registry; 71 are open to participants now.

Of its 44 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 20 (45%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Male and female subjects between the ages of 18 and 65, inclusive
  • Subject diagnosed with episodic migraine, with or without aura according to ICHD-2 criteria for at least one-year prior to screening
  • Subject experiences between 2-10 migraine attacks per month (during the previous 6 months) with no more than 15 days of headache per month.
  • Subject is using or agrees to use for the duration of participation a medically acceptable form of contraception (as determined by investigator), if female and of child-bearing potential
  • Subject is able to come for 4 hour in-clinic treatment of an acute migraine attack
  • Subjects are able to understand and comply with all study procedures.
  • Subject provides written informed consent prior to any screening procedures being conducted
  • If subject is on an allowable migraine preventive medication, the dose has been stable for at least 4 weeks prior to screening and the dose will remain stable throughout study participation.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to make a reliable self-report of pain intensity to pain relief
  • Use of analgesic or opioid within 24 hours of onset of headache to be treated with study medication. (If subject has an eligible headache and has taken a triptan or DHE within 24 hours, but greater than 2 hours before study drug dosing, they can be treated with study medication.)
  • Patients taking the following medications on a regular basis: warfarin, lithium, ACE-inhibitors, loop diuretics, thiazide diuretics, ARBs, and methotrexate.
  • Patients with active, clinically significant anemia
  • Patients with a history or evidence of asthma
  • Patients with a history heart failure
  • Subjects with severely impaired hepatic or renal function, as determined by the investigator
  • Patients with a history of allergy or hypersensitivity to any component of IVIb, aspirin (or aspirin related products), NSAIDs, or COX-2 inhibitors
  • Pregnant or nursing women
  • Patients who have a history of congenital bleeding diathesis (e.g., hemophilia) or any active clinically significant bleeding, or have underlying platelet dysfunction including (but not limited to) idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, disseminated intravascular coagulation, or congenital platelet dysfunction
  • Patients who have GI bleeding that required medical intervention within the previous 6 weeks (unless definitive surgery has been performed.)
  • Patients who have a platelet count less than 100,000, as determined within the 28 days prior to treatment
  • Pre-existing or current dependence on opioids.
  • Subjects who have participated in an investigational drug trial in the 30 days prior to the screening visit
  • Subjects with uncontrolled hypertension
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Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
44 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Placebo comparator
    placebo

    IV saline administration as placebo

    Other: saline placebo

  • Experimental
    Ibuprofen

    IV ibuprofen

    Drug: Ibuprofen

Interventions

  • Othersaline placebo

    250 cc of placebo administered IV

  • DrugIbuprofen

    800 mg ibuprofen in 250 cc saline administered IV

    Also known as: Caldolor

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Comparison of Proportion of Subjects in Control and Active Treatment Groups Who Have Pain Relief at 2 Hours After the Completion of the Double-blind Treatment Infusion.

    Comparison of proportion of subjects in each treatment group (active treatment and placebo) who have pain relief at 2 hours after the completion of the double-blind treatment infusion. Pain relief is defined as a reduction in headache pain level from severe or moderate decreased to mild or headache-free, respectively.

    Time frame: 2 hours

07

Results

Posted Sep 6, 2022
Limitations and caveats
Slow enrollment and small sample size impacted the type 1 error, study power, and quality. The randomization failed to balance the distribution of migraine duration between the two groups. No blinding assessment was done. The primary endpoint of 2HR pain relief for acute migraine treatment was the most common outcome measure at the time.

Participant flow

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestonePlaceboIbuprofen
Started2123
Completed2123
Not completed00

Outcome measures

PrimaryComparison of Proportion of Subjects in Control and Active Treatment Groups Who Have Pain Relief at 2 Hours After the Completion of the Double-blind Treatment Infusion.

Comparison of proportion of subjects in each treatment group (active treatment and placebo) who have pain relief at 2 hours after the completion of the double-blind treatment infusion. Pain relief is defined as a reduction in headache pain level from severe or moderate decreased to mild or headache-free, respectively.

Time frame:
2 hours
Reported as:
Count of participants · Participants
Comparison of Proportion of Subjects in Control and Active Treatment Groups Who Have Pain Relief at 2 Hours After the Completion of the Double-blind Treatment Infusion.
ParticipantsPlaceboIbuprofen
Comparison of Proportion of Subjects in Control and Active Treatment Groups Who Have Pain Relief at 2 Hours After the Completion of the Double-blind Treatment Infusion.1017
Statistical analysis
  • Placebo vs Ibuprofen · Regression, Logistic · p = 0.078 · Odds ratio (or): 3.12 · 95% CI 0.88 to 11.0

Adverse events

Collected over Adverse events were collected from the start of treatment ( which could take up to 1 hr), then at post treatment time points: 30 min , 1hour, 2 hour as well as during the 24 hr post treatment phone call and at 1 week follow up.. Non-serious events are listed at a 2% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
Placebo0/21 (0%)0/21 (0%)3/21 (14.3%)
Ibuprofen0/23 (0%)0/23 (0%)4/23 (17.4%)
Most frequent other events
Most frequent other events
EventPlaceboIbuprofen
Gastrointestinal disturbanceGastrointestinal disorders2/210/23
arm painMusculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders1/212/23
dizzinessNervous system disorders0/211/23
Cold sensitivityNervous system disorders0/211/23
Neck painNervous system disorders0/211/23

Baseline characteristics

Age, Continuous
Age, Continuous(years)PlaceboIbuprofenTotal
Mean40.3 ± 12.142.8 ± 10.541.0 ± 11.2
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)PlaceboIbuprofenTotal
Female171633
Male4711
Race and Ethnicity Not Collected
Race and Ethnicity Not Collected(Participants)PlaceboIbuprofenTotal
Count of participants——0
Migraine Duration Since onset (years)
Migraine Duration Since onset (years)(years)PlaceboIbuprofenTotal
Mean16.4 ± 10.423.6 ± 11.420 ± 10.9
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Study locations

1 site
  • Jefferson Headache Center
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, United States
09

References and documents

Publications

  • Yuan H, Curran JG, Keith SW, Hopkins MM, Silberstein SD. Intravenous ibuprofen for acute treatment of migraine: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study. Headache. 2021 Oct;61(9):1432-1440. doi: 10.1111/head.14214. Epub 2021 Oct 3. PubMed 34601736 ↗

Study documents

  • Protocol and statistical analysis plan · Jul 31, 2014
  • Informed consent form · Jun 1, 2017

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 6, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01230411
Lead sponsor
Thomas Jefferson University
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Oct 29, 2010
Start date
Jun 2011
Primary completion
Jun 2017
Completion
Jul 2017
Results posted
Sep 6, 2022
Last update
Sep 6, 2022

Study contacts

Stephen D. Silberstein, M.D.
principal investigator · Jefferson Headache Center

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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