New research shows that sugar pills beat the two drugs that are frequently used to prevent migraines in children, but had fewer side effects that lead a doctor to reconsider how can they treat the common ailment in teens and children. It's the first thorough head-to-head test in kids of the two generic prescription drugs that also used to adults' migraines.

Amitriptyline as the anti-depressant and the topiramate drug for anti-seizure medicine that can prevent migraines in adults. The idea is to sort out if the drug could diminish by  the half number of days that the kids had migraines in a month.

Scott Powers, the lead author or the study and director of the Headache center, said that the medication didn't perform well as all thought it would, and the sugar pill even performed better than the drugs. The study was released (Thursday) online, in the New England Journal of Medicine and was paid by National Institute of Child health and Human Development and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, KOAA reports.

A migraine is characterized by nausea, vomiting, headache, and sensitivity to sound and light.  11 percent of children aged 7 to 11 years have a migraine and 23 percent of 15 years old has a migraine. There are 328 who are suffering from a migraine aged 8 to 17 at 31 sites nationwide and randomly assigned to take either the amitriptyline, topiramate or placebo pill for 24 weeks. Those patients with a chronic migraine and episodic migraines were included to take the test, The New York Times reports.

Their research is to figure out which drug can be more effective at reducing the number of migraine frequency and to determine what drug helped children to stop missing school or social activities. But it turns out there is no difference in the group. The study shows 61 percent of the group who is taking placebo reduced the number of days by 50 percent and more, while there is 52 per cent in amitriptyline and 55 percent to those who took topiramate.

Side effects from the drugs include mouth ulcers, fatigue, and forgetfulness. Almost one-third of kids had tingling sensations in their hands, legs, arms, or feet. There was one suicide attempt in the topiramate group, another known that is a side-effect of that drug. Given the risk and the results suggests that drugs shouldn't be 'first-line prevention treatments for kids migraines.

According to Dr. Eugene Schnitzler, a neurology professor and pediatrics at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine said that, he's going to simply say that the two drugs are effective in adults but not convincing in treating children and adolescents. Dr. David Gloss, a methodologist and neurologist for American Academy of Neurology said that they're revising the academy's guidelines on pediatric migraines and is planning to assess the nondrug approaches