Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Intravenous magnesium sulphate in the acute treatment of migraine without aura and migraine with aura. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Magnesium sulphate has been used in the acute treatment of migraines; some studies found it to be a highly effective medication in the acute control of migraine pain and associated symptoms. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assesses the effect of magnesium sulphate on the pain and associated symptoms in patients with migraine without aura and migraine with aura. Sixty patients in each group were assigned at random to receive magnesium sulphate, 1000 mg intravenously, or 0.9% physiological saline, 10 ml. ⋯ The analgesic therapeutic gain was 36.7% at 1 h. A smaller number of patients continued to have aura in the magnesium sulphate group compared with placebo 1 h after the administration of medication. Our data support the idea that magnesium sulphate can be used for the treatment of all symptoms in migraine with aura, or as an adjuvant therapy for associated symptoms in patients with migraine without aura.
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Five hundred and fifty-four patients with episodic cluster headache (ECH) and chronic cluster headache (CCH) were examined between 1963 and 1997. Mean age at onset was significantly higher in women with CCH compared with women with ECH and in men with ECH or CCH. In women with CCH age at onset was evenly distributed from 10 to 69 years, whereas in men with CCH and in both sexes with ECH, there was a peak when they were in their 20s. ⋯ During the observation period of more than 30 years there was a trend towards a decreasing male preponderance; the male : female ratio was significantly higher among patients with onset before rather than after 1970. The proportion of episodic vs. chronic CH did not change during the study period. The nature of the sex- and age-related pattern of cluster headache onset remains to be elucidated but mechanisms associated with sex hormone regulation, perhaps of hypothalamic origin, may be involved, as well as environmental factors related to lifestyle.
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We report two cases of cluster headache sine headache occurring in a family of cluster headache sufferers. A 54-year-old female, suffered for 15 years from short-lasting, right-sided attacks of eye reddening, lacrimation, rhinorrea, palpebral oedema and miosis, seven to eight times per day, in periods of 20-30 days. She did not experience headache, either with or without these phenomena. ⋯ Soon after the end of the current cluster period he still had daily attacks lasting 10-15 min, with the oculo-nasal autonomic phenomena only. The occurrence of cluster headache sine headache and cluster headache in the same family strongly suggests that the first condition is related to the cluster headache syndrome. Cluster headache sine headache should be considered as a subtype of the cluster headache syndrome.
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Studies in normal volunteers have demonstrated that the lateral atlanto-axial joints (C1-2) are capable of causing pain in the occiput, but few clinical studies have validated this source of occipital headache. The present study tested the null hypothesis that the lateral atlanto-axial joints are not a common source of occipital headache. ⋯ The clinical features used to select patients for blocks, however, had a positive predictive value of only 60%. Further study of headaches from C1-2 seems justified in order to establish more definitively the prevalence of this condition and how it might become better recognized in practice.
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More than 16 years after the first description of hemicrania continua (HC), its aetiology and pathogenesis remain obscure. Clinically, HC is considered a syndrome with two pivotal characteristics: (i) strictly unilateral (moderate, fluctuating, relatively long-lasting) headache; and (ii) absolute response to indomethacin. HC is further characterized by some ancillary, but mostly "negative", features such as: (iii) relative paucity of accompaniments; and (iv) lack of precipitating factors. ⋯ HC is probably pathophysiologically different from the others disorders classified under CDH. Conversely, HC and chronic paroxysmal hemicrania share many common features, including the absolute response to indomethacin. HC should probably be included in the IHS group 3.