Institute of Information Systems, University of Applied Sciences Hof, Hof, Germany.
Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
BMC Neurol. 2021 Apr 22;21(1):174. doi: 10.1186/s12883-021-02195-8.
The aim of this work is to analyze the reports on cluster headache attacks collected online in the citizen science project CLUE with respect to the effectiveness of drugs taken during the attacks. The collection of data within the framework of citizen science projects opens up the possibility of investigating the effectiveness of acute medication on the basis of a large number of individual attacks instead of a simple survey of patients.
Data from 8369 cluster headache attacks, containing information about acute medication taken and the assessment of its effect, were collected from 133 participants using an online platform and a smartphone app. Chi-square tests were used to investigate whether the effect of the three recommended acute drugs differs when distinguishing between participants with chronic or episodic cluster headache. Furthermore, it was investigated whether there are differences between smokers and non-smokers in the assessment of the effect of the acute medication.
Our participants rated the effectiveness of sumatriptan 6 mg s.c. as significantly better than oxygen and zolmitriptan nasal spray. Oxygen is considered to be significantly better in episodic versus chronic cluster headache, and sumatriptan is considered to be significantly better in chronic versus episodic cluster headache. Smokers rate the effect of oxygen as significantly better than non-smokers.
Despite some methodological limitations, web-based data collection is able to support findings from clinical trials in a real world setting about effectiveness of acute cluster headache treatment in several situations.
本研究旨在分析公民科学项目 CLUE 中在线收集的集群性头痛发作报告,以评估发作期间使用药物的效果。公民科学项目的数据收集为在大量个体发作的基础上调查急性药物的效果提供了可能,而不是简单地对患者进行调查。
采用在线平台和智能手机应用程序,共 133 名参与者在线报告了 8369 次集群性头痛发作的信息,包括发作期间使用的急性药物和对其效果的评估。采用卡方检验,以区分慢性和发作性集群性头痛患者,比较三种推荐的急性药物的效果差异。此外,还考察了吸烟者和非吸烟者对急性药物效果评估的差异。
我们的参与者认为 6mg 皮下注射舒马曲坦的疗效明显优于吸氧和佐米曲普坦鼻喷剂。与慢性集群性头痛相比,吸氧在发作性集群性头痛中的效果被认为更好,而舒马曲坦在慢性集群性头痛中的效果更好。与非吸烟者相比,吸烟者认为吸氧的效果更好。
尽管存在一些方法学上的局限性,但基于网络的数据收集能够支持临床试验在真实环境下关于急性集群性头痛治疗效果的发现,在某些情况下,其结果具有一定的参考价值。