SUNCT SYNDROME - TRIALS OF DRUGS AND ANESTHETIC BLOCKADES

Nine patients with the SUNCT syndrome (Spanish and Norwegian patients) have, over many years, been given several drugs effective in the clus ter headache syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia, and other headaches, as w ell as drugs not previously used in headache. Various cranial nerves w ere also anesthetized in an endeavor to ameliorate the suffering of th ose patients. Although a partial effect was obtained with carbamazepin s and corticosteroids in some patients, none of the drugs or anestheti c blockades had consistent, lasting, complete effect on headache parox ysms in SUNCT. The essentially negative outcome of this study aids in further characterizing SUNCT as a separate disorder, and, above all, i n distinguishing it from trigeminal neuralgia and the cluster headache syndrome.