title: Cluster headache--course over ten years in 189 patients.
abstract: One-hundred-and-eighty-nine cluster headache patients, referred to Parma and Pavia Headache Centres between 1976 and 1986 with a disease duration of over 10 years, were interviewed about the course of cluster headache. They were classified as episodic (n = 140) or chronic (n = 49) cluster headache patients on the basis of course during the year of onset. Episodic patients showed the following outcome: maintenance of an episodic form (primary episodic form) in 80.7% of cases, shift towards a chronic form (secondary chronic form) in 12.9% and shift towards an intermediate pattern ("combined" form) in 6.4%. In chronic patients, cluster headache was still chronic (primary chronic form) at the moment of observation in 52.4% of cases, while it turned into an episodic form ("secondary" episodic form) in 32.6% and into a "combined" form in 14.3%. Nineteen patients (10%) had had no attacks for at least three years at the moment of examination. We can conclude from our data that: cluster headache is a disease of long duration, perhaps lifelong; episodic cluster headache tends to worsen; chronic cluster headache may easily turn into a better prognostic episodic form; prophylactic drugs are unable to induce recovery. The following factors seem related to a poor outcome: a later onset, the male gender and a disease duration of over 20 years for the episodic forms.
authors.affiliation: University Centre for Adaptive Disorders and Headache, Department of Neurology, University of Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Manzoni
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Micieli
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Granella
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tassorelli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zanferrari
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavallini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003027:Cluster Headache / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors