Parenteral treatment of episodic tension-type headache. Is there sufficient evidence?

摘要

In their review article "Parenteral treatment of episodic tension-type headache: a systematic review," Weinman et al review 8 studies involving 486 patients and conclude that "various parenteral medications other than salicylates or nonsteroidals provide acute relief of tension type headache." The review article aims to discuss parenteral treatment of episodic tension-type headache (TTH) (2.1 in the International Classification of Headache), and not the treatment of chronic TTH (2.2). However, from the titles of 2 of the reviewed papers, it is obvious that chronic TTH was treated: (1) "The 5-HT1-like agonist sumatriptan has a significant effect in chronic tension-type headache" and (2) "Effect of inhibition of nitric oxide synthase on chronic tension-type headache: A randomised crossover trial."