One in seven people experience migraine headaches while others suffer with even more debilitating cluster headaches. The causes of these headaches are not fully understood and current treatments provide only partial relief. In this episode pharmacologist Antoinette van den Brink and neurologist Rolf Fronczek describe the clinical features of these headaches, the current understanding of their causes, and hormonal and environmental factors that can trigger the headaches. Drugs that inhibit the peptide CGRP and electrical stimulation of the occipital nerve are among treatments shown to be effective in reducing headache intensity or duration.

LINKS

University webpages:

https://www.erasmusmc.nl/en/research/researchers/maassen-van-den-brink-antoinette

https://hoofdpijnonderzoek.nl/en/team/dr-rolf-fronczek/

Migraine headache articles

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/03331024241238153

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10863119/pdf/10194_2024_Article_1724.pdf

Cluster headache articles

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7018790/pdf/40263_2019_Article_696.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10755111/pdf/main.pdf