A history of non-drug treatment in headache, particularly migraine

Although new invasive procedures for the treatment of migraine have evolved during the past decades, the application of invasive procedures for this indication is not new. In this review, the history of non-drug treatments for migraine is discussed. Historical texts by physicians known to have written on headache and migraine (hemicrania), well-known books by physicians from the main historical periods up to 1900 and mainstream 20th century neurology handbooks were analysed. A large number of treatments have been tried, based on contemporaneous pathophysiological models that were not only applied to headache, but to medicine in general. Invasive procedures have been used for the more severe types of headache. Many treatments were based on ancient humoral theories up to the early 19th century. A new kind of invasive procedure appeared on the physician's palette in the 19th and 20th century, following the development of new ideas that were based on solid pathophysiology, after the introduction of scientific method into medicine. After its introduction in the mid-18th century, medical electricity became even more popular for the treatment of migraine following the discovery of vasomotor nerves in the mid-19th century, but at the end of that century a more critical attitude appeared. The discovery of the lumbar puncture (1892) and roentgenogram (1895) and increased knowledge of intracranial pressure led to a new series of invasive procedures for therapy-resistant migraine in the early 20th century. Vasospastic theories of migraine led to surgical procedures on the sympathetic nerves. Following the experiments by Graham and Wolff in the 1930s that emphasized the vasodilatation concept of migraine, sympathicolytic procedures again became popular, including vessel ligation of the carotid and middle meningeal arteries. The influence of suggestion and psychological phenomena recognized at the end of the 19th century probably played an important role in many of the procedures applied. These placebo effects, generally more powerful in invasive treatments, are discussed against the background of present-day invasive treatments for headache, where they are still a matter of concern.