A Research Study to Examine the Difference Between Local Anesthetics Alone and Local Anesthetics Plus Steroids in the Treatment of Chronic Headache

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Migraine

In brief

Subjects are scheduled to undergo a Greater Occipital Nerve Block (GONB) as treatment for your chronic daily headache (CDH). GONB has been used for many years in the treatment of headaches. The nerve block is done by injecting a liquid drug through the skin of the back of the head to the area of the greater occipital nerve. The nerve runs superficially in this area, therefore the drugs are injected just under the skin. The injected drugs block electrical transmission through the nerve, resulting in reduced head pain. There are treatment options for patients receiving a GONB, however, some clinicians use local anesthetics (lidocaine and /or bupivicaine) alone, and some use local anesthetics with local steroid injection. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not there is an observed difference between these two treatment approaches for GONB. We expect to enroll 60 patients into this research study at Thomas Jefferson University only.

Key facts

Study ID: NCT00203294
Run by: Thomas Jefferson University
People needed: 45
Starts: 2005-06-01
Expected to finish: 2006-06-01
Last updated by the study team: 2014-05-07

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 65. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

Adult patients, age 18-65 inclusive
Patients who have chronic daily headache (15 or more headache days per month) for at least 3 months prior to enrollment in the study.
Headache level should be 5/10 or more at time of GON block.
Patients should have posterior cervical muscle tenderness at time of nerve block.

You may not qualify if…

Patients who had surgery or any other invasive procedure in the occipital area.
Patients with abnormal sensory findings on examination or any known neurological disease that may affect skin sensation (peripheral neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, stroke, etc).
Patients diagnosed with cluster headache
Patients with skin diseases that may affect skin sensation.
Patients who are cognitively impaired.
Patients with significant psychiatric disorder that may affect their understanding of the study protocol and/or their cooperation with the investigators.
Patients who are pregnant or breast-feeding.

Where it is running

Jefferson Headache Center — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.