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- Title
Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation for the acute treatment of episodic and chronic cluster headache: A randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled ACT2 study.
- Authors
Goadsby, Peter J.; de Coo, Ilse F.; Silver, Nicholas; Tyagi, Alok; Ahmed, Fayyaz; Gaul, Charly; Jensen, Rigmor H.; Diener, Hans-Christoph; Solbach, Kasia; Straube, Andreas; Liebler, Eric; Marin, Juana C. A.; Ferrari, Michel D.; Marin, Juana Ca; ACT2 Study Group
- Abstract
Background Clinical observations and results from recent studies support the use of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) for treating cluster headache (CH) attacks. This study compared nVNS with a sham device for acute treatment in patients with episodic or chronic CH (eCH, cCH). Methods After completing a 1-week run-in period, subjects were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive nVNS or sham therapy during a 2-week double-blind period. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of all treated attacks that achieved pain-free status within 15 minutes after treatment initiation, without rescue treatment. Results The Full Analysis Set comprised 48 nVNS-treated (14 eCH, 34 cCH) and 44 sham-treated (13 eCH, 31 cCH) subjects. For the primary endpoint, nVNS (14%) and sham (12%) treatments were not significantly different for the total cohort. In the eCH subgroup, nVNS (48%) was superior to sham (6%; p < 0.01). No significant differences between nVNS (5%) and sham (13%) were seen in the cCH subgroup. Conclusions Combing both eCH and cCH patients, nVNS was no different to sham. For the treatment of CH attacks, nVNS was superior to sham therapy in eCH but not in cCH. These results confirm and extend previous findings regarding the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of nVNS for the acute treatment of eCH.
- Subjects
CLUSTER headache; TREATMENT of cluster headaches; NEURAL stimulation; VAGUS nerve; TREATMENT effectiveness; CHRONIC diseases; COMPARATIVE studies; LONGITUDINAL method; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL cooperation; PLACEBOS; RESEARCH; STATISTICAL sampling; EVALUATION research; RANDOMIZED controlled trials; BLIND experiment; ACUTE diseases
- Publication
Cephalalgia, 2018, Vol 38, Issue 5, p959
- ISSN
0333-1024
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1177/0333102417744362