(HealthCentersOnline) - A nasal spray used to fight migraines may also help relieve a severe type of headache known as cluster headache, researchers report.
Migraines are a debilitating form of headache that usually recur throughout a person's life. Most often diagnosed in women, migraines can be accompanied by symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light. Cluster headaches often develop within minutes, occur in cyclical patterns and cause sharp, penetrating or burning pain on only one side of the head, especially around the eye or temple. They can last for hours and most commonly affect young and middle-aged men.
Migraine attacks are often treated with a class of drugs known as triptans, which reduce swelling in the brain by constricting blood vessels. Some previous studies have found that certain triptans taken by injection, pill or other means can also reduce the pain of a cluster headache. Conditions that may rule out use of triptans include cardiovascular diseases.
British researchers at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery studied the effect of zolmitriptan (Zomig) nasal spray on 80 men and 12 women with cluster headaches, of whom 69 completed the study. The volunteers randomly treated three headache attacks during the project, either with 10 milligrams of zolmitriptan, 5 milligrams or a placebo (nontreatment) spray.
The participants reported relief after half an hour in 61 percent of the episodes treated with 10 milligrams of the triptan, 42 percent of the episodes treated with 5 milligrams and 23 percent of the episodes treated with the placebo. They reported being pain-free after half an hour in 50 percent of the episodes treated with 10 milligrams, 28 percent of the episodes treated with 5 milligrams and 16 percent of the episodes treated with the placebo.
No one reported serious side effects from the medication, but one person quit the trial after experiencing symptoms including vomiting and shortness of breath.
"The data provide evidence that zolmitriptan nasal spray can be used as a first-line abortive therapy, along with sumatriptan nasal spray or inhaled oxygen, in the management of cluster headaches," the researchers wrote in conclusion.
Health
The study is scheduled for publication in the November edition of Archives of Neurology and has already been published online.
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