Steroid Injections cut Cluster Headache Attacks
This past October, The Lancet Neurology published a study from France using steroid injections for cluster headache patients. Though certainly not the silver bullet for cluster, the treatment did show promise.
The study featured patients who were having at least 2 cluster headache attacks per day. Patients were randomly chosen to take an injection of corticosteroids or a placebo (saline solution). The injections were suboccipital (in the back of the head/neck – the greater occipital nerve), on the same side as the cluster symptoms. All patients were taking verapamil.
Compared to the group on the placebo, patients had on average half of the cluster headache attacks over the next 15 days. Other than some neck pain where the injections were done, there were no side effects recorded.
Both chronic and episodic cluster headache sufferers were a part of the study.
For a condition that has so little available treatment, steroid injections may be a good option to help control cluster attacks.
Hear a doctor’s comments on the study here: Steroid Injections for Cluster Headache?
2 December 2011 @ 11:15 am
I have been a chiropractor for 16 years and I have made headache and migraine a focus of my practice. I have found it difficult to get good long term control with cluster headaches. The only thing I have found to help was oxygen therapy. I’m glad to see one more option on the horizon.
The Varying Levels of Migraine
23 April 2014 @ 6:38 am
[…] Wednesday afternoon: Migraines have been an issue for me for a very long time. I have just about every “type” of migraine you can find, including what is listed as rather rare – The Cluster Migraine. Most of the time, I can tolerate them and/or they don’t stick around in such a way that drastically affects my life. I’ve had three MAJOR long-lasting migraines that I can think of and I’m dealing with the third one right now. It’s been going on for over a week and has ranged from a tolerable level where I could function, as long as I avoided computer screens, to landing me in bed after having taken multiple meds to just knock myself out. When it hit a week of this going on I called my Neurologist, who, of course, was out of town. Two days later, he’s back and he called me in Dexamethazone. I looked online initially and read the pamphlet and couldn’t find anything about using a Steroid to kill a migraine. Then, I finally found this article. And another one here about Steroid Injections for cluster headache. […]
Varying levels of migraines
29 May 2014 @ 1:26 pm
[…] Wednesday afternoon: Migraines have been an issue for me for a very long time. I have just about every “type” of migraine you can find, including what is listed as rather rare – The Cluster Migraine. Most of the time, I can tolerate them and/or they don’t stick around in such a way that drastically affects my life. I’ve had three MAJOR long-lasting migraines that I can think of and I’m dealing with the third one right now. It’s been going on for over a week and has ranged from a tolerable level where I could function, as long as I avoided computer screens, to landing me in bed after having taken multiple meds to just knock myself out. When it hit a week of this going on I called my Neurologist, who, of course, was out of town. Two days later, he’s back and he called me in Dexamethazone. I looked online initially and read the pamphlet and couldn’t find anything about using a Steroid to kill a migraine. Then, I finally found this article. And another one here about Steroid Injections for cluster headache. […]