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To investigate whether central facilitation of trigeminal pain processing is part of the pathophysiology of cluster headache (CH).

IV lysine acetylsalicylate (aspirin) has been shown to be effective in the treatment of acute migraine attacks, but little is known about its effectiveness and safety in patients hospitalized for management of severe headache, typically arising from abrupt withdrawal of other acute attack medications.

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) usually leads to paroxysms of short lasting but very severe pain. Between the attacks the patient is usually asymptomatic, but a constant dull background pain may persist in some cases. The mechanisms associated with the development of this chronic pain are not well understood.

Migraine is a common disabling condition likely to be associated with dysfunction of brain pathways involved in pain and other sensory modalities. A cardinal, indeed signature, feature of the disorder that led to its name is that the pain may be lateralized. H215O-labelled PET was used to study 24 migraineurs and eight healthy controls. The migraineurs were divided into three groups according to the site of their headache: right, left or bilateral. In each group, a migraine was induced using a glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) infusion. The subjects were scanned at predefined points: pre-infusion, during GTN, during migraine and post-migraine. SPM99 software was used to analyse the data. Significant brainstem activation was seen in the dorsal lateral pons (P < 0.05 after small volume correction) during the migraine state versus the pain-free state when comparing migraineurs with controls. When each group was analysed separately, to investigate laterality, it was found that the dorsal pontine activation was ipsilateral in the right-sided and left-sided groups and bilateral in the bilateral headache group with a left-sided preponderance. Consistent with previous work, the activation persisted after pain was controlled by sumatriptan. These results suggest that lateralization of pain in migraine is due to lateralized brain dysfunction.

Trigeminal pain processing was studied in 14 patients with unilateral migraine attacks and 14 age- and sex-matched patients with comparable unilateral headache from frontal sinusitis. Using a nociception-specific blink reflex method (nBR), a facilitation of nBR responses predominantly on the headache side was observed in migraine, but not in sinusitis. The facilitation of trigeminal nociception may be specific for migraine rather than a consequence of peripheral pain such as frontal sinusitis.

To investigate trigeminal sensory processing in patients with migraine using a novel “nociception-specific” blink reflex.

Objective: The medullary R2 response of the blink reflex can be elicited by innocuous and noxious stimuli. The purpose of this study was to elicit a nociception specific R2 response with a new surface electrode.

Die Inzidenz der Migräne beträgt 6–8% für Männer und 12–14% der Frauen. Die Attacken gehen mit pulsierenden pochenden halbseitigen Kopfschmerzen und vegetativen Begleiterscheinungen einher. Bei ca. 15% der Patienten kommt es vor den Kopfschmerzen zu einer Aura, meist mit visuellen Symptomen. Für eine seltene Variante der Migräne, die familiär hemiplegische Migräne, konnten Gendefekte auf den Chromosomen 19 und 1 identifiziert werden. Leichte und mittelschwere Migräneattacken werden mit der Kombination eines prokinetischen Antiemetikums wie Metoclopramid oder Domperidon und einem ausreichend dosierten Analgetikum behandelt. Mittelschwere und schwere Migräneattacken werden mit der Kombination eines Antiemetikums und Ergotamintartrat therapiert. Ist diese Therapieoption nicht wirksam oder verursacht sie nicht tolerable Nebenwirkungen, kommen die modernen 5-HT1B/D-Rezeptoragonisten (“Triptane”) zum Einsatz. Patienten mit häufigen oder schweren Migräneattacken benötigen eine medikamentöse und nicht-medikamentöse Prophylaxe. Medikamente der 1. Wahl sind die Beta-Rezeptorenblocker Metoprolol, Propranolol und der Kalziumantagonist Flunarizin. Substanzen der zweiten Wahl sind Valproinsäre, nicht-steroidale Antirheumatika oder Acetylsalicyclsäure.

Migraine is a paroxysmal disorder characterized by attacks of headache, nausea, vomiting, photophobia, phonophobia, and malaise. This review summarizes new treatment options for therapy of the acute attack. Mild or moderate migraine attacks are treated with antiemetics followed by analgesics such as aspirin, paracetamol, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or antiemetics combined with ergotamine or dihydroergotamine. Sumatriptan, a specific serotonin (5-HT)1B/Dagonist is used when attacks do not respond to ergotamine, or when intolerable side effects occur. The new migraine drugs zolmitriptan, naratriptan, rizatriptan, and eletriptan differ slightly in their pharmacological profiles, which translates into minor differences in efficacy, headache recurrence, and side effects. New drugs in migraine prophylaxis include cyclandelate, valproic acid and magnesium.

Migraine aura is probably caused by cortical-spreading depression. No treatment for acute and severe migraine aura has been described previously. The effect of ketamine (25 mg intranasally) was studied in 11 patients with severe, disabling auras resulting from familial hemiplegic migraine. In five patients ketamine reproducibly reduced the severity and duration of the neurologic deficits, whereas in the remaining six patients no beneficial effect was seen. Ketamine offers, for the first time, a possible treatment option for severe and prolonged aura.

Evidence from animal experiments shows that the brain stem is involved in the pathophysiology of migraine. To investigate human migraine, we used positron emission tomography to examine the changes in regional cerebral blood flow as an index of neuronal activity in the human brain during spontaneous migraine attacks. During the attacks, increased blood flow was found in the cerebral hemispheres in cingulate, auditory and visual association cortices and in the brain stem. However, only the brain stem activation persisted after the injection of sumatriptan had induced complete relief from headache and phono- and photophobia. These findings support the idea that the pathogenesis of migraine is related to an imbalance in activity between brain stem nuclei regulating antinociception and vascular control.