European Headache Federation (EHF) critical re-appraisal and meta-analysis of oral drugs in migraine prevention - part 4: propranolol

Table 1 Propranolol compared to placebo for migraine prophylaxis

Propranolol compared to placebo for migraine prophylaxis
Patient or population: migraine Intervention: prophylaxis with propranolol Comparison: placebo
Outcomes	№ of participants (studies) Follow-up	Certainty of the evidence (GRADE)	Relative effect (95% CI)	Anticipated absolute effects
				Risk with placebo	Risk difference with propranolol
50% or more reduction in monthly migraine days	982 (7 RCTs)	Moderate (downgraded due to risk of bias)	RR 1.65 (1.41 to 1.93)	275 per 1,000	179 more per 1,000 (113 more to 256 more)
Monthly migraine days	935 (10 RCTs)	Moderate (downgraded due to risk of bias)	-	NA	MD 1.27 migraine days fewer (2.25 fewer to 0.3 fewer)
Adverse events leading to discontinuation	1,291 (15 RCTs)	High	RD 0.02 (0.00 to 0.03)	0 per 1,000	20 more per 1,000 (0 more to 30 more)

CI confidence interval, MD mean difference, RR risk ratio, RD risk difference
GRADE Working Group grades of evidence
High certainty: we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect
Moderate certainty: we are moderately confident in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different
Low certainty: our confidence in the effect estimate is limited: the true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect
Very low certainty: we have very little confidence in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect

ISSN: 1129-2377