Cluster headache: symptomatic treatment

Abstract.

The clinical management of cluster headache (CH) attacks requires a symptomatic treatment that is rapidly effective in resolving or significantly reducing symptoms. First-choice drugs for the symptomatic treatment of CH are subcutaneous sumatriptan at a dose of 6 mg and 100% oxygen inhalation at a rate of 7 l/min for no more than 15 min. Sumatriptan acts by suppressing pain and the accompanying autonomic phenomena, with no substantial differences in its mechanism of action between episodic and chronic CH. The drug can be used for prolonged periods without loss of efficacy or safety and its side-effects are generally mild or moderate. Oxygen inhalation has a number of advantages over drug therapy: it is free from side-effects, has no contraindications—unlike sumatriptan, it can be used in patients with cardiac, cerebral or peripheral vascular disease and with kidney, liver or lung disease—acts rapidly and can be administered several times a day. Its disadvantages are that it is scarcely practical and may induce a “rebound effect”. Sumatriptan nasal spray, zolmitriptan and dihydroergotamine nasal spray are scarcely effective. After the introduction of sumatriptan, ergotamine tartrate has been relegated to a secondary role in the symptomatic treatment of CH. Among other non-drug and topical drug treatment options, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and the intranasal application of 10% cocaine hydrochloride and 10% lidocaine in the sphenopalatine fossa have also proved effective.