Oxygen therapy 'should be a first-line treatment for cluster headaches'
Breathing oxygen-enriched air has been proven to relieve the pain of cluster headaches and should therefore be considered a first-line treatment, it has been claimed.
Dr Peter Goadsby, from the Headache Center at the University of San Francisco, told delegates at the American Neurological Association's 133rd annual meeting that oxygen therapy can bring substantial benefits to patients.
He performed a study on 109 adults between 2003 and 2007 and evaluated the efficacy of oxygen therapy.
During each cluster headache attack, patients were randomised to treatment using gas cylinders containing either 100 per cent oxygen or air for four separate headaches occurring on different days.
A total of 150 headaches were tested using oxygen and 148 with a placebo and the researchers found that within 15 minutes, 78 per cent of those who breathed oxygen-enriched air were pain free, compared to 20 per cent of people treated with the placebo.
According to a review by Michael Bennett, of Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, both hyperbaric and normobaric oxygen therapy can ease the pain of cluster headaches.
Posted by Stewart Elliott
26/01/2010 17:47:52
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