PO-12 | The long-term efficacy on migraine of non-ketogenic low-carb diet after treatment with ketogenic diet

Silvia Favaretto,¹ Francesco Francini Pesenti² | ¹Headache centre, Neurology Unit, Department of Neuroscience, University Hospital of Padua; ²Department of Medicine (DIMED), Clinical Nutrition, University Hospital of Padua, Italy

Background: Ketogenic diet (KD) is proposed as a preventive dietetic treatment for migraine, in association with standard-of-care pharmacological therapy. Our group recently demonstrated its efficacy and safety over a period of 12 months. In this study we present the clinical outcomes of a group of migraine patients who were initially treated with ketogenic diet for a period of 12 months and subsequently shifted to a low-carb non ketogenic diet (nK-LCD) for an additional period of over 12 months. Previous studies suggested that nK-LCD is less efficient than KD in terms of migraine prevention when used an initial dietetic strategy.

Methods: After 12 months of ketogenic diet patients were shifted to a low-carb non ketogenic diet (nK-LCD, with 80-100 grams of carbohydrates per day).

Results: At the moment of our study, among 33 migraine patients successfully treated with KD for 12 months, 13 patients (12 females, 1 male) had completed the subsequent 12 months of nK-LCD. Mean duration of nK-LCD was 23,4 + 9,7 months. Table 1 depicts clinical outcomes after 12 months of KD (T0) and at the moment of our study after 12 additional months of nK-LCD (T1).

Conclusion. Our preliminary data show how nK-LCD can be a promising and efficient strategy to maintain in the long term the benefits of KD on migraine prevention.