Triptan and Ergotamine Overdoses in the U.S.

Migraine is strongly linked to suicide ideation and attempt. Triptans and, to a lesser extent, ergotamine are common rescue medications for migraine and cluster headache, but understanding of the toxidrome from overdose of those medications is limited.

To examine outcomes of intentional overdoses involving triptans or ergotamine in the U.S., investigators performed a cross-sectional study of 2014–2018 data from the National Poison Data System (NPDS). They found 1489 patients with overdose exposures to a triptan, ergotamine, or both. Of these, 1197 (80.4%) were female and suicidal intention was suspected in 1205 (80.9%) cases. Death occurred in six cases (0.4%), all involving multiple product exposures. Sumatriptan was used in 868 cases (58.3…