Electrical stimulation of the brain provides long lasting relief for cluster headache.

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.

Source

American Association of Neurological Surgeons Meeting 28th April 2003