The effects of melatonin treatment on headache and vasomotor reactivity in patients with chronic tension-type headache

Abstract

Objectives: Chronic tension-type headache (TTH) is a serious disease that disrupts quality of life. In this study, the effect of prophylactic oral melatonin treatment on headache and cerebral vasomotor reactivity (VMR) was investigated in patients diagnosed with chronic TTH per the International Classification of Headache Disorders criteria. Subjects and Methods: Twenty patients with chronic TTH and 20 healthy individuals were included in the study. The patients were administered a melatonin treatment at 3 mg/day for 12 weeks. The number of monthly painful days and pain severity were recorded with the “Visual Analog Scale” before and after the treatment. Cerebral VMR measurements were performed at baseline in the control group and in patients before and after the treatment. Results: The median number of monthly painful days was 20 (15–27) before the treatment and 10 (4–18) after the treatment; the median pain severity score was 70.00 (45–80) before the treatment and 42.50 (15–75) after the treatment. The difference was statistically significant (P = 0.001). No statistically significant difference between the VMR values was observed (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Melatonin treatment was effective in reducing the pain severity and decreasing the number of monthly painful days in patients with chronic TTH but demonstrated no effect on the cerebral VMR.