Dealing With Headaches

So, what’s worse — cluster headaches or heart problems? That’s a tough call, but hopefully those on the new cluster headache drug verapamil will ever have to find out. A British study has reported in August 2007 that verapamil can negatively affect your heart. But this did not hurt the hearts of all people on verapmil. It is therefore highly recommended for verapamil users to have periodic EKG (electrocardiagrams) checks of their hearts to be sure that that everything is tickety-boo.

Study Summary

This study was reported in the August 14, 2007 issue of Neurology, an English journal specifically for neurologists and neurosugeons. The report was written by the respected Dr. Peter Goadsby, who works in nuerology on both sides of the Altantic. He has had many cluster headache patients, mostly men.

The study participants were made up of 217 men and 152 women, making 369 in all. All of them suffered from cluster headaches (also called suicide headaches). They were all given verapmil, starting at 140mg a day and increased until the headaches went away or they developed an irregular heartbeat. However, only 108 had regular EKGs done. Twenty had irregular EKGs done, while 80 had no EKGs at all. This is not highly suprising, even though the excuses given ranged from “I forgot” to “My doctor thought too many EKGs were unnecessary”. The study did not mention who paid for the EKGs. Most of the study’s finding centered on the 180 who had regular EKGs. They found that:

21 patients (19 per cent) had arrhythmias (irregular heart beat).
13 patients (12 per cent) had first degree heart block at 240 to 960 mg a day, with one patient needing to have a permanent pacemaker fitted.
4 patients had junctional rhythm.
1 patients had second degree heart block.
4 patients had right bundle heart block.
Bradycardia (heart rate below 60 beats per minute) occurred in 39 (36 per cent) patients, but verapamil was stopped in only 4 patients

He concluded that verapamil was still a relatively new drug and patients on it needed to be closely monitored for any signs of irregular heartbeat. Doctors needed to be informed about the possible side effects, as the drug is so new that they might not be aware of it. He also noted that the pain of cluster headaches is so excruciating that patients may be tempted to stay on verapmil even if their hearts fail an EKG test.

Hopefully, new studies can be done to back up these findings, as it is going to be very hard for any cluster headache sufferer who finds relief from verapamil not to be discouraged, but empowered to take more action to assure they can help both their hearts and their heads.