Hemicrania Continua and Paroxysmal Hemicrania Treatment

Hemicrania continua and paroxysmal hemicrania are rare headache conditions that cause throbbing pain on one side of the face. The term hemicrania refers to "one side of the head," and continua indicates that the headache is continuous and unrelenting, meaning hemicrania continua is a persistent, daily headache on one side. Paroxysmal, meaning "sudden recurrence or intensification," describes the nature of paroxysmal hemicrania, which features sudden, severe attacks of pain that can occur several times a day. Although the conditions can appear similar and even transform into each other, they are distinct forms of headaches. Both have been called the little cousins of cluster headache.

While both hemicrania continua and paroxysmal hemicrania can be debilitating, gammaCore™ non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator (nVNS) can help relieve pain and reduce attack duration or frequency. It is the only FDA-cleared non-drug treatment option for providing headache relief for either condition. gammaCore nVNS works by stimulating the vagus nerve, offering a non-invasive and effective solution to manage these challenging headache disorders.

What is hemicrania continua?

It’s a chronic and persistent form of headache. It causes multiple short and severe headaches, often more than five per day, with most lasting between five and 30 minutes each.
The headache pain is centered around the eye, temple, and forehead and is localized to one side of the head.
Other symptoms can include redness and watering of the eye, but typically does not cause nausea or vomiting.
Hemicrania continua is known to be more common in women than men.

What is paroxysmal hemicrania?

It’s a recurrent one-sided headache that is usually located around or behind the eye.
Headaches attack suddenly and repeatedly, rather than persistently.
Episodes typically occur five to 40 times per day, and may last two to 30 minutes each.
Attacks typically begin in adulthood.
It’s a rare disorder, and affects women more than men.

What are the differences between hemicrania continua and paroxysmal hemicrania?

They have many similarities, such as:

Both typically affect one side of the head and face.
Patients can experience a variety of autonomic reflexes, such as droopy eyelid, teary eye, runny nose, and small pupil.
They are rare disorders that affect women more than men.
Both can be treated with gammaCore.

However, the significant difference is the duration of pain and the frequency of attacks.

Hemicrania continua causes persistent headaches that rarely or never go away.
Paroxysmal hemicrania causes repeated, sudden headaches.

A non-drug hemicrania continua and paroxysmal hemicrania treatment

Many hemicrania continua and paroxysmal hemicrania sufferers are looking for an effective drug-free treatment that won’t harm their gut. That’s where gammaCore can help.

gammaCore is a clinically-proven, drug-free solution for headache relief.

No pills or injections

Prescription strength results without the drug-like side effects

Can be used multiple times per day (up to 24 stimulations)

How does gammaCore provide relief?

gammaCore is a handheld, non-invasive device that uses gentle electrical stimulation to activate the vagus nerve in quick 4-minute treatments, morning and night. The vagus nerve plays an important role in decreasing intensity, duration, and frequency of hemicrania continua and paroxysmal hemicrania attacks.

When the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are not in balance, a variety of autonomic symptoms are present. Stimulating the vagus nerve activates the parasympathetic system (the rest and digest side of the equation) and brings the systems into balance—which can alleviate a variety of autonomic reflexes, such as droopy eyelid, teary eye, runny nose, and restricted pupil.