Background: A beneficial prophylactic effect from eletriptan 40 mg given to a single patient with cluster headache was observed.
Objective: To further evaluate the efficacy of eletriptan in the short-term prophylaxis of cluster headache.
Methods: We treated 18 patients; mean age, 40.5 years (standard deviation [SD], 9.9). The number of cluster headache attacks was recorded during a baseline period of 6 days, and during 6 days of treatment with eletriptan 40 mg twice daily. The primary outcome measure was the reduction in the number of attacks during the treatment period.
Results: In the 16 patients who completed the study (2 patients were lost to follow-up), the mean total number of attacks decreased from 10.9 (SD, 5.6) during baseline to 6.3 (SD, 3.7) during treatment with eletriptan (P=.01) The reduction in the number of attacks exceeded 50% in 6 patients.
Conclusion: This small open-label study suggests that eletriptan 40 mg twice daily may be useful for the short-term prophylaxis of cluster headache.