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Topic: why treatment same for migraines and clusters? (Read 348 times) |
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Radha
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why treatment same for migraines and clusters?
« on: Apr 8th, 2006, 10:41pm » |
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i was wondering why the meds are the same, like relpax and imitrex for both migraine and cluster when they are not the same kind of headache? they dont have any similarities right?
radha
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BikerBob
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Re: why treatment same for migraines and clusters?
« Reply #1 on: Apr 8th, 2006, 11:16pm » |
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The similarity is that migraine and cluster headaches involve vasodilation of the cranial blood vessels and that the common abortives of both are powerful vasoconstrictors.
BB
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Bob_Johnson
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Re: why treatment same for migraines and clusters?
« Reply #2 on: Apr 9th, 2006, 8:15am » |
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Adding to BB's thought: Virtually all research funds are directed to migraine because the incidence of cluster headache is so small. Therefore, most of the meds we use have been adopted from those developed to treat migraine.
There seems to be some shift away from this historical pattern but funding will continue to be the driving force in shaping both basic research and drug development.
Peter Goadsby's ground breaking research which identified the two parts of our brain which appear to be the triggers for these two headache forms also reinforced the idea that much of the neurological processes are shared, hence, the sharing of many meds.
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Bob Johnson
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floridian
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Re: why treatment same for migraines and clusters?
« Reply #3 on: Apr 9th, 2006, 8:34pm » |
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Clusters seem to start in the hypothalamus, which is different from migraine. But once they are started, many of the pain transmission mechanisms are identical to migraine. Triptans and other medicines shut off the pain (which is good) but don't have much effect on the hypothalamus.
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Radha
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Re: why treatment same for migraines and clusters?
« Reply #4 on: Apr 9th, 2006, 10:26pm » |
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thanks for your explanations, and taking the time to reply, radha
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