New Treatment for Cluster Headaches

Jannie · Gold Member Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 424

Cluster headaches are "one-sided", severely painful type of headaches that can comes on very quickly, peak in five minutes and stay severe for 30 to 180 minutes. The biggest problem with this kind of headaches is that the number of therapeutic options is limited.

New research showed that medications frequently used for migraines are often helpful in cluster headaches as well. The research showed that zolmitriptan nasal spray, a drug that belongs to triptans-migraine drugs, could reduce pain within 10 minutes to 30 minutes depending on the dosage.

With zolmitriptan in one nostril (5 milligrams) or two nostrils (10 milligrams), cluster headaches were successfully reduced or eliminated in a significant number of people.
Fifty percent of the patients using the lower dose and 63% using the higher dose experienced pain reduction within 30 minutes while 46.9 % patients using the high dose and 38.5 % using the low dose were pain-free.

Similar findings have been reported from European studies, both funded by AstraZeneca, the maker of the zolmitriptan nasal spray.
Currently, the gold standard for treating cluster headaches is subcutaneous sumatriptan. There is a relative limit on how many doses of this drug can be taken because of the delivery method for that medication. The nasal spray is to allow a little more dosing within that period of time.
However, the study didn’t show what side effects might occur with more frequent usage. Before the FDA considers approval of the drug for cluster headaches, a longer-term study needs to be done.

New Treatment for Cluster Headaches

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