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I think we've seen these results before, but maybe not in an official journal.  http://www.docguide.com/initial-use-novel-noninvasive-vagus-nerve-stimulator-cluster-headache-treatment?tsid=5  (Full text of abstract below.)

Two things that were of interest to me. One is that 7 of the people testing this were "refractory to drug treatment."  It doesn't say in the abstract what the results were for those seven, but at a minimum three of them got some relief. (And I don't know whether "drug treatment" includes "oxygen treatment.")  This might be something to recommend to folks who are refractory.  (Of course, I'd go for busting first. It's so darn tragic to me how many people are suffering and suffering but don't/won't try busting.)

Second, it says that prophylactic use resulted in fewer attacks.  So I'm wondering whether this could be used as an additional preventive, even if not as a first-line alternative to oxygen.

This is a case where I'd love to be able to read the whole article.

Initial use of a novel noninvasive vagus nerve stimulator for cluster headache treatment; Nesbitt A, Marin J, Tompkins E, Ruttledge M, Goadsby P; Neurology (Feb 2015)

   

OBJECTIVE To report our initial experience with a novel device, designed to provide portable, noninvasive, transcutaneous stimulation of the vagus nerve, both acutely and preventively, as a treatment for cluster headache.

METHODS Patients with cluster headache (11 chronic, 8 episodic), from 2 centers, including 7 who were refractory to drug treatment, had sufficient data available for analysis in this open-label observational cohort study. The device, known as the gammaCore, was used acutely to treat individual attacks as well as to provide prevention. Patient-estimated efficacy data were collected by systematic inquiry during follow-up appointments up to a period of 52 weeks of continuous use.

RESULTS Fifteen patients reported an overall improvement in their condition, with 4 reporting no change, providing a mean overall estimated improvement of 48%. Of all attacks treated, 47% were aborted within an average of 11 ± 1 minutes of commencing stimulation. Ten patients reduced their acute use of high-flow oxygen by 55% with 9 reducing triptan use by 48%. Prophylactic use of the device resulted in a substantial reduction in estimated mean attack frequency from 4.5/24 hours to 2.6/24 hours (p<0.0005) posttreatment.

CONCLUSION These data suggest that noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation may be practical and effective as an acute and preventive treatment in chronic cluster headache. Further evaluation of this treatment using randomized sham-controlled trials is thus warranted.

CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE This study provides Class IV evidence that for patients with cluster headache, transcutaneous stimulation of the vagus nerve aborts acute attacks and reduces the frequency of attacks.

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not being funny but those results dont look any better than 02 to me      maybe im wrong 

no, i think you're right.  but the device is small and portable, so you could have it for lots of occasions when you don't have O2 (on an airplane would be pretty great).

   also, like i say, i'm not sure what the "prophylactic" effect is. maybe it's just like O2, where it can sometime hold off subsequent attacks when you're using it to abort one attack, but maybe it's a broader thing than that, where it somehow acts as a generalized preventive (not fully effective as a preventive, but maybe somewhat effective).

and maybe, since this is an early-stage device, they might figure out ways for it to be more effective over time.

a big shout out to those who participated in testing this, because it was placebo controlled, so some people were using a device that didn't work, and enduring full-blown attacks for the sake of the science.  to me, that was really courageous and generous.  i think our friend b.g. (who's not here much but still active at Facebook) was one of those people.

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a big shout out to those who participated in testing this, because it was placebo controlled, so some people were using a device that didn't work, and enduring full-blown attacks for the sake of the science.  to me, that was really courageous and generous.  i think our friend b.g. (who's not here much but still active at Facebook) was one of those people.

couldnt agree more very unselfish

thank you to them

also good point re portability

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