Impact of continuing or quitting smoking on episodic cluster headache: a pilot survey

The Journal of Headache and Pain

Research Article

Maurizio Zappaterra¹  Anna Ferrari¹  Luigi Alberto Pini¹  Simona Guerzoni¹  Maria Michela Cainazzo¹  Federica Righi²  Ilaria Tiraferri²  Michela Ciccarese³ 

[1] Headache and Drug Abuse Inter-Department Research Centre, Division of Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia- Policlinico, Largo del Pozzo, 71-41100, Modena, Italy;School of Medical Toxicology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy;School of Pharmacology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy;

关键词: Cluster headache;    Smoking;    Cigarette;    Nicotine;    Pain;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1129-2377-14-48

 received in 2013-04-22, accepted in 2013-05-28,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe majority of patients suffering from cluster headache (CH) are smokers and it has been suggested that smoking may trigger the development of CH. The aim of this pilot survey was to describe: 1. the differences between current, former, and never smokers CH patients; 2. if smoking changed during an active cluster period; 3. if CH changed after quitting.MethodsAll outpatients with episodic CH according to the criteria of ICHD-II who were consecutively seen for the first time from October 2010 to April 2012 at a headache centre were interviewed by phone using a specifically prepared questionnaire. Statistical differences between continuous variables were analysed by the Student’s t- test or the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Newman-Keuls post-hoc testing. Comparisons between percentages were made using the Chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test. All data were expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (SD).ResultsAmong a total of 200 patients surveyed (172 males, 28 females; mean age ± SD: 48.41 ± 12 years) there were 60%, 21%, and 19% of current, former, and never smokers, respectively. Current smokers reported longer active periods (12.38 ± 10 weeks) and a higher maximum number of attacks per day (3.38 ± 1) compared to never smoker CH patients (5.68 ± 4 weeks, P <0.05 and 2.47 ± 1, P <0.05, respectively). During the active period most of the patients stated to decrease (45.7%) or not to change (45.7%) the number of cigarettes smoked. Among those who decreased smoking, most (83.8%) reported that they had less desire to smoke. After quitting, the majority of former smokers stated that their headache had not changed.ConclusionsPatients with episodic CH who are also smokers appear to have a more severe form of the disorder. However, it is unlikely that between CH and smoking there is a causal relationship, as CH patients rarely improve quitting smoking.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Ferrari et al.; licensee Springer. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.