[Treatment of Horton's headache with testosterone]

The studied material comprised 15 men with 12 of them having the episodic from of Horton's headaches and 3 with chronic form. In the episodic form the age of the patients was from 32 to 48 years, mean age 38. The history of the disease was from 6 to 12 years, the duration of a spell of headaches was 2-3 months and the patients had then 2-5 attacks of pain daily. Before the onset of treatment the patients were not given for 1 week any drugs or placebo. After determination of the index of attacks treatment was begun. For 7-10 days the patients received daily intramuscular testosterone propionate 25 mg, and then 10 mg for a similar time period. Before the treatment the index of attacks was 3.66 (with the total number of attacks 308). In the first week of treatment it decreased to 1.11 (94 attacks), in the second week it was 0.16 and in the third week 0.05. In 10 patients the attacks disappeared completely (83%), in the remaining 2 ones they regressed in a later time. Three patients with the chronic form received this treatment without effect.