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© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Background: Cluster headache (CH) is a debilitating condition, but current therapies leave CH patients in pain. The extent of this problem in Sweden is unknown. Methods: An anonymized questionnaire was sent to 479 Swedish CH patients to investigate patterns and perceived effects of treatments. Results: Three hundred fourteen answers were analyzed. The population was representative regarding age of onset and sex. Less than half (46%) were satisfied with their abortive treatments, 19% terminated functioning abortive treatments due to side effects. Additionally, 17% of chronic CH patients had not tried the first-line preventive drug verapamil. A small subset had tried illicit substances to treat their CH (0–8% depending on substance). Notably, psilocybin was reported effective as an abortive treatment by 100% (n = 8), and with some level of effect as a preventive treatment by 92% (n = 12). For verapamil, some level of preventive effect was reported among 68% (n = 85). Conclusions: Our descriptive data illustrate that many Swedish CH patients are undertreated, lack functional therapies, and experience side effects. Further studies are warranted to search for new treatment strategies as well as a revision of current treatment guidelines with the aim of reducing patient disease burden to the greatest extent possible.

Details

Title
Use of Prescribed and Non-Prescribed Treatments for Cluster Headache in a Swedish Cohort
Author
Smedfors, Gabriella 1 ; Olofsgård, Felicia Jennysdotter 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Steinberg, Anna 2 ; Waldenlind, Elisabet 2 ; Ran, Caroline 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Belin, Andrea Carmine 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Centre for Cluster Headache, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden; [email protected] (G.S.); [email protected] (F.J.O.); [email protected] (C.R.) 
 Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Neurology, Karolinska University Hospital, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden 
First page
348
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20763425
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3046610435
Copyright
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.