BOTOX® vs. XEOMIN® for Chronic Migraine

Overview

Chronic migraine (CM) is a disabling disorder that sidelines active duty personnel and diminishes their quality of life. It affects 1.3% to 2.4% of the general population. These numbers increase in active duty personnel, especially those returning from deployment, as well as in veterans. Furthermore, these numbers are 4-5 times higher in military members who experienced at least one mild traumatic brain injury. CM leads to impaired cognition and poor decision-making. These impairments on critical active duty tasks could have a significant impact on task readiness and military performance. Therefore, CM presents a challenge for the "return to duty" mission. Currently, onabotulinumtoxinA is the only FDA-approved prophylactic treatment for CM; however, this treatment requires refrigeration, to which there is little access for the forward-deployed members who have limited access to adequate storage for this treatment. Therefore, it is imperative to identify a CM treatment that does not require refrigeration. Furthermore, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resulting international shortages in critical medication production and delivery, it is imperative to identify more than one treatment option for the management of CM. In this study, we will test the efficacy of incobotulinumtoxinA, a neurotoxin that, unlike onabotulinumtoxinA, does not require refrigeration, but is an effective off-label alternative for the treatment of migraine. OnabotulinumtoxinA and incobotulinumtoxinA are comparable in strength, with a conversion ratio of 1:1.

One hundred and twenty-eight male and female active duty personnel, adult dependent and retiree patients from the Navy Medical Center at Camp Lejeune who meet the International Classification of Headache Disorders 3rd Edition (ICHD-3) criteria of ≥15 headache days per month lasting 4 hours or longer will participate in the trial. Subjects will be group-allocated randomly, 64 to onabotulinumtoxinA and 64 to incobotulinumtoxinA. Injections of either treatment will occur twice, 12 weeks apart, in the head and neck regions. The primary treatment efficacy measurement will be the mean change in headache days 12 to 24 weeks post-treatment. Participants will complete an electronic diary to report headache days, their severity, and adverse effects or unforeseen events. A baseline will be established four weeks prior to the first botulinumtoxinA (Botox or Xeomin) administration using the number of headache days and two questionnaires, Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6) and the Migraine Specific Quality (MSQ) Questionnaire, which assess headache impact and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL), respectively. These questionnaires will also be administered at weeks 12 and 24 of the study. The baseline, 12-, and 24-week analysis will be performed using a time vs. treatment repeated measures analysis of variance for headache days. Secondary outcomes (total scores of both the HIT-6 and MSQ) will be analyzed similarly.