Electrical stimulation of the brain provides long lasting relief for cluster headache.
One of the most severe forms of headache and facial pain, cluster headache begins with a stabbing pain in or around the eye and persists, increasing in intensity, for up to two hours. People may be affected by 'clusters' of attacks over a period of weeks or months, followed by remission. Other symptoms include nasal congestion, drooping eyelid, eye watering and sweating.

Medical treatment, with a variety of drugs, may not work and surgery gives poor results. But now US researchers may have hit on a new answer for cluster headache. They tried implanting electrodes into a region deep in the brain called the posterior hypothalamus and stimulating these with high frequency radiation. The results, on a small study of eight patients, were dramatic, with all becoming pain-free during the treatment program and remaining so during several months of follow up. The treatment may sound drastic but it appears to be both safe as well as effective. A larger study would now confirm whether the electrical stimulation treatment can be offered to more people with drug resistant cluster headache.