Wilfred Harris' early description of cluster headache

C J Boes1, D J Capobianco, M S Matharu

  • 1Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. boes.christopher@mayo.edu

Wilfred Harris was a London neurologist with a significant interest in the treatment of neuralgia. Harris' descriptions of what he called migrainous neuralgia were the first recorded of cluster headache in the English medical literature. He was probably one of the first to describe the cluster phenomenon itself and the effectiveness of ergotamine in treating acute attacks of cluster headache. His seminal contributions to the clinical and therapeutic spectrum of cluster headache are reviewed.

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