New York Headache Center

Migraine is most likely to occur at noon, according to an article just published in Headache by Norwegian researchers.  Although only 58 patients participated in this year-long study, there was a very clear peak of occurrence at noon.  This finding is different from what was reported in previous studies, which suggested that the most likely time for a migraine attack is in early morning hours.  The authors speculate that the restorative effects of sleep and work stress may be responsible for their finding.

Botulinum toxin injections relieve tension headaches, according to a study just published in the European Journal of Neurology .  Most of the previous studies had been conducted in patients with migraines or chronic migraines (more than 15 days of headaches a month).  There is much less evidence that Botox also helps tension headaches.  Our experience at the NYHC treating patients with tension headaches with Botox injections has been also very positive.  In this European study doctors used Dysport - a version of botulinum toxin type A that is not available in the US.  However, Dysport is very similar to Botox.  On the other hand, Myobloc, which is botulinum toxin type B,  is a very different version of botulinum toxin and in several aspects is inferior to Botox.

Migraine and cluster headaches that do not respond to the usual treatments, may improve with injections of histamine.  Dr. Seymour Diamond of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago has pioneered the use of histamine in cluster headaches.  We have found that in cluster headache patients for whom nothing else works histamine often provides excellent relief.  A recent study published in the journal European Neurology suggests that histamine injections may also help migraine patients.