Cluster headache occurs mainly in men and produces a shooting pain in the eye or head. Applying a good treatment will determine the intensity of the pain. In the following article, Dr. Mateos Marcos details the best treatment to receive.
Treatment of cluster headaches
As far as treatment is concerned, it is striking that today many of these patients continue to receive completely nonspecific drugs with a low efficacy profile. Moreover, they are administered by oral routes, which is not the most appropriate for a problem such as this. This therapeutic inadequacy is often the result of confusion with migraine, a diagnosis that many of these patients have when they go to the neurologist. That is why the first objective of the specialized consultation is to establish a correct diagnosis as well as to indicate the most suitable treatment for each particular patient.
Type of treatment for cluster headaches
Thus, taking into account the very high intensity of the pain, its rapid onset and its relative brevity, it is necessary that the designated drugs be highly effective. They should have an equally rapid onset of action and, in addition, they should be administered by the patient himself, without having to resort to the Emergency Department. In this regard, there are drugs that meet these premises and which, when administered subcutaneously or intranasally, produce such a rapid and forceful response in just a few minutes that many patients cannot but consider the result to be “spectacular”. A second therapeutic objective is to “cut” the cluster as soon as possible and/or to avoid or reduce the frequency of relapses. For this purpose, there are also several options, the specific choice of which will depend on the personal characteristics of the patient and his or her associated pathologies. In the event that the drug does not produce any results, as happens in a minority of patients suffering from chronic and refractory forms, an interventional technique may be considered, by implanting stimulators in key anatomical structures (targets) at the origin of this headache. Of all of them, hypothalamic stimulation is the one that has shown the best results.
In my personal experience, the correct use of the different therapeutic options available leads to a radical change in the quality of life of these patients. The essential premise, as in many other areas of medicine, is to have a correct diagnosis.