Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Intravenous magnesium sulphate in the acute treatment of migraine without aura and migraine with aura. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Magnesium sulphate has been used in the acute treatment of migraines; some studies found it to be a highly effective medication in the acute control of migraine pain and associated symptoms. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assesses the effect of magnesium sulphate on the pain and associated symptoms in patients with migraine without aura and migraine with aura. Sixty patients in each group were assigned at random to receive magnesium sulphate, 1000 mg intravenously, or 0.9% physiological saline, 10 ml. ⋯ The analgesic therapeutic gain was 36.7% at 1 h. A smaller number of patients continued to have aura in the magnesium sulphate group compared with placebo 1 h after the administration of medication. Our data support the idea that magnesium sulphate can be used for the treatment of all symptoms in migraine with aura, or as an adjuvant therapy for associated symptoms in patients with migraine without aura.
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Sudden onset headache is a common condition that sometimes indicates a life-threatening subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) but is mostly harmless. We have performed a prospective study of 137 consecutive patients with this kind of headache (thunderclap headache=TCH). The examination included a CT scan, CSF examination and follow-up of patients with no SAH during the period between 2 days and 12 months after the headache attack. ⋯ It was concluded that attacks caused by a SAH cannot be distinguished from non-SAH attacks on clinical grounds. It is important that patients with their first TCH attack are investigated with CT and CSF examination to exclude SAH, meningitis or cerebral infarction. The results from this and previous studies indicate that it is not necessary to perform angiography in patients with a TCH attack, provided that no symptoms or signs indicate a possible brain lesion and a CT scan and CSF examination have not indicated SAH.