On the Pathogenetic Role of Histamine and the Vascular Apparatus in Certain Forms of Headache

Abstract

Headache is merely a symptom, and clinically our efforts should concentrate on tracing the course of the headache in the give case, though often we get no farther than to establish the dynamics of the headache and adopt the treatment accordingly.In a preceding paper (i) it was reported that 63 % of the patients in our neurological clinic complained of headache. About the various forms of headache, among 459 cases of paroxysmal headache migraine occurred in 81 %, allergic headache in 6 %, histamine hemicrania in 4 %, and other, partly unclassifiable, forms in 8 %.As to the incidence of migraine, in a neurological patient material it was 3 %, in a general medical 2 %, and in a gynecological material it was 10 %.The appearance of headache requires an active eliciting factor, endogenous or exogenous, and often these factors, which are innumerable, fail to be recognized so that the headache apparently sets in spontaneously. Considering migraine, for instance, the factors eliciting an attack are so many and so different as to give the impression that their only mutual feature is just their abUity to elicit an attack of migraine.In order to illustrate this lack of homogenity it will be sufficient to mention such different factors as hormonal dis-

Migraine in Patients With Cluster Headache

“…Most of the larger publications (1,8,11,20,21) show a relatively constant familial occurrence of migraine. There seems to be little doubt that Dalsgaard-Nielsen's (19) statement is the result of the author's rather wide diagnostic criteria at that time, and that K. A. Ekbom's (18) statement is due to the composition of a rather small material.…”

“…Information regarding the familial occurrence of migraine among patients with cluster headache varies considerably (Table 4). Dalsgaard-Nielsen (19) found that in 52% of cases there was a familial occurrence of migraine; K. A. Ekbom (18), on the other hand, found that no one had. Most of the larger publications (1,8,11,20,21) show a relatively constant familial occurrence of migraine.…”

Prophylactic Ergot And Other Treatment For Limited Migraine Variant

“…Most workers in the field nowadays, however, are not prepared to identify this substance with histamine. 1,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] I have found neither the sensitivity test nor the histamine de-sensitization treatment to fulfil their early promise.…”