Effect of Infusion of Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide on Cluster Headache Attacks: A Randomized Clinical Trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide), published as a randomized controlled trial.

To determine whether CGRP induces cluster headache attacks in episodic cluster headache in active phase, episodic cluster headache in remission phase, and chronic cluster headache.

Why It Was Studied

Whether CGRP provokes cluster headache attacks is unknown.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Inclusion took place from December 2015 to April 2017.

Exclusion criteria were a history of other primary headache (except episodic tension-type headache <5 days/mo), individuals who were pregnant or nursing; cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or psychiatric disease; and drug misuse.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Because people in this CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) group a baseline to be compared against.

Each person switched between CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2-way crossover study set at the Danish Headache Center, Rigshospitalet Glostrup, in Denmark.

Analyses were intent to treat.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide and Cluster Headache.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 12 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2018 (JAMA neurology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) compound page, all human trials.