Nasal spray effective for cluster headaches

Nasal spray effective for cluster headaches
Mon Sep 25, 4:53 PM ET



The migraine medication zolmitriptan when administered as a nasal spray appears to be a safe and effective treatment of acute cluster headache, European researchers report.

The study shows that nasal zolmitriptan, which is known by the brand name Zomig, "provides a further, much-needed, evidence-based and effective option to treat acute cluster headache -- the worst such pain known," senior author Dr. Peter J. Goadsby told Reuters Health.

Dr. Goadsby of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London and colleagues note in the Archives of Neurology that cluster headache "is the most painful form of primary headache, typically characterized by attacks of usually excruciating unilateral pain lasting 15 to 180 minutes."

Oral zolmitriptan is known to be an effective treatment for migraine headache and there is preliminary evidence that the new intranasal formulation may be helpful for treating cluster headache.

To investigate further, the researchers conducted a study involving 92 patients with cluster headache. Without knowing the order of treatment, the participants treated one headache with 5 milligrams of zolmitriptan nasal spray, another attack with 10 milligrams, and a third with an inactive "placebo" nasal spray.

The team found that headache relief rates 30 minutes after treatment were 40 percent for the low-dose zolmitriptan, 62 percent for the high-dose zolmitriptan, and 21 percent for placebo.

Goadsby noted there is increasing interest "in this highly disabling, important form of primary headache." Patients should know, he added, that "work is being done on their condition."

SOURCE: Archives of Neurology, September 2006.