Cohen A, Burns B & Goadsby PJ (2009) “High-Flow Oxygen for Treatment of Cluster Headache–A Randomized Trial” . JAMA 302(22):2451-2457. (Click author to see paper) AUTHORS’ ABSTRACT: Cluster headache is an excruciatingly painful primary headache syndrome, with attacks of unilateral pain and cranial autonomic symptoms. The current licensed treatment for acute attacks is subcutaneous sumatriptan.…Read More…
What’s all this fuss about oxygen?
January 21st, 2010Cluster headache and the occipital nerve (Part 4 of 4)
December 23rd, 2009Jurgens TP, Busch V, Opatz O, Schulte-Mattler WJ & May A. (2008) “Low-frequency short-time nociceptive stimulation of the greater occipital nerve does not modulate the trigeminal system” Cephalalgia 28:842-846 (Click author to see paper) Dr. Sewell’s comment: 2007 was a big year for occipital nerve stimulation. Drs Burns and Goadsby in San Francisco published their…Read More…
Cluster Headache and the Occipital Nerve (Part 3 of 4)
November 29th, 2009V Busch, W Jakob, T Juergens, W Schulte-Mattler, H Kaube & A May (2007) “Occipital nerve blockade in chronic cluster headache patients and functional connectivity between trigeminal and occipital nerves” Cephalalgia 27:1206–1214. (Click author to see paper) We now fast-forward another year to see what Dr. Busch did next. I just noticed that the last…Read More…
Kicking and Screaming
November 19th, 2009That’s me, not a cluster headache patient, being dragged into the twenty-first century by my intrepid web designer, Judy Herilla. After months of relentless nagging, she finally got me onto Twitter, a link for which you will note above. Now she’s also added an “RSS feed” so you can have the latest in cluster headache…Read More…
Cluster headache and the Occipital Nerve (part 2 of 4)
November 16th, 2009V Busch, W Jakob, T Juergens, W Schulte-Mattler, H Kaube & A May (2006). “Functional connectivity between trigeminal and occipital nerves revealed by occipital nerve blockade and nociceptive blink reflexes” Cephalalgia 26:50-55 (click author to see paper) This is the second in a series of four papers exploring the question—how can occipital nerve block possibly…Read More…
Cluster Headache and the Occipital Nerve (part 1 of 4)
November 11th, 2009T Bartsch & PJ Goadsby (2002) “Stimulation of the greater occipital nerve induces increased central excitability of dural afferent input” Brain 125: 1496-1509. (click author to see paper) Several weeks ago, after my post on occipital nerve stimulation, astute reader Friedrich (who incidentally runs the German cluster headache research website at http://ck-wissen.de/ckwiki/index.php?title=ELPAS) mentioned several other…Read More…
Is Cluster Headache Genetic?
November 5th, 2009C Sjostrand (2009) “Genetic Aspects of Cluster Headache” Expert Rev Neurother, 2009. 9(3) 359-368. (Click author to see paper) AUTHORS’ ABSTRACT: Cluster headache (CH), a primary neurovascular headache syndrome, is characterized by recurrent, unilateral, short-lasting attacks of excruciating pain in the temporal and/or orbital region. The pain is considered one of the most severe pain…Read More…
Pot Smoking Helped; Who Would Have Thought?
October 25th, 2009MS Robbins, S Tarshish, S Solomon & BM Grosberg (2009) “Cluster Attacks Responsive to Recreational Cannabis and Dronabinol” Headache 49(6): 914-916 (click author to see paper) AUTHORS’ ABSTRACT: Pharmacological preparations of cannabinoid compounds have a variety of therapeutic uses in medicine, including different pain syndromes, but have not been previously reported as beneficial for cluster…Read More…
This One Really WAS a Brain Tumor!
October 21st, 2009MS Robbins, S Tarshish, U Napchan & BM Grosberg (2009) “Atypical Cluster Headache Secondary to Giant Meningioma”. Headache, Jul; 49(7):1052-3 (click author to see paper) CASE REPORT: A 37-year-old previously healthy man presented with an 8-year history of side-locked attacks of excruciatingly severe, squeezing left peri-orbital pain. The attacks were associated with ipsilateral lacrimation and…Read More…
National Institute of Health to track headache funding
October 8th, 2009From the October 7th issue of the American Headache Society Newsletter (my clarifications added in square brackets to the original): One of the short term goals of the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy (AHDA) has been to improve the transparency of NIH [National Institute of Health] funding for research on headache disorders. The NIH reports…Read More…