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Oxygen Therapies Work Well to Relieve Headaches

Posted on: Friday, 25 July 2008, 13:20 CDT

A new study suggests that two forms of oxygen therapy may actually help manage two types of debilitating headache pain.

The researchers reviewed nine small clinical trials and found that hyperbaric oxygen therapy showed promise for halting pain during migraine attacks. A similar treatment—normobaric, or normal-pressure, oxygen therapy—eased pain in people suffering from cluster headaches.

Migraines and cluster headaches can be debilitating for many people. Migraines typically cause throbbing pain in one area of the head, often accompanied by nausea, vomiting or sensitivity to light and sound.

Cluster headaches cause sharp pain on one side of the head, including the eye—some lasting anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours and come in waves. They are ofen experienced as repeated attacks over a few weeks to months, followed by a period of no symptoms.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a sealed, pressurized chamber. With normobaric oxygen therapy, patients breathe pure oxygen from a portable unit under normal conditions.

Doctors have long suggested normal-pressure oxygen for severe headache pain, and there is some evidence that hyperbaric oxygen could be helpful, but few controlled clinical trials have evaluated the therapies.

Nine clinical trials performed between 1981 and 2004 involving a total of 201 patients were considered during the new study. When they combined data from three, they found that hyperbaric oxygen therapy was six times more likely to relieve migraine pain than a "sham" (placebo) therapy used for comparison.

One similar study showed that normal-pressure oxygen outperformed sham therapy in easing cluster headache pain. Another trial found the therapy to be effective, but not better than the medication ergotamine.

However, lead researcher Dr. Michael H. Bennett, of Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, Australia, said none of the two forms of oxygen therapy prevented future headache attacks.

Based on the evidence, people with cluster headaches who are not finding quick or complete relief from their medication could ask their doctor about normobaric oxygen therapy, Bennett suggested.

Bennett said hyperbaric oxygen could be an option for stubborn migraine pain, but it may not be all that practical.

"Unfortunately, this treatment will be relatively expensive and may not be covered by medical insurance or provided by local medical services," he said. "It is likely that hyperbaric oxygen will only be used in the very worst cases where relief is not obtained by any alternative method."

Researchers are still unclear as to what makes oxygen therapy work.

Bennett noted that migraines involve blood vessel dilation in the head, and hyperbaric oxygen causes vessels to constrict, which may help explain the pain reduction. There is also evidence that hyperbaric oxygen blocks the "chemical pathways" that lead people to feel migraine pain, he explained.

As for cluster headaches, they are associated with altered activity in certain brain areas.

"In general, oxygen seems to return the activity of these areas to normal, and may be directly responsible for the effect of oxygen on the headache," said Bennett.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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