Therapeutic measures, with intravenous chlorpromazine, taken during acute headache are evaluated in fourteen patients at the emergency room in Santa Casa de São Paulo. Four patients had the diagnosis of migraine with aura and five patients migraine without aura. Four patients had diagnosis of chronic daily headache with intermittent and superimposed migrainous events. Finally one patient had the diagnosis of chronic paroxysmal hemicrania. All patients were diagnosed according to Intenational Headache Society criteria. The intravenous chlorpromazine dose used was 0.7 mg/Kg diluted in 5% glucose solution and the dose never exceeded 50 mg. The time of drug administration was never less than 60 minutes. The results were considered excellent in all cases. Some patients presented side effects, particularly orthostatic hypotension, always moderate and transitory. This study has clearlly demonstrated that intravenous chlorpromazine (0.7 mg/Kg) was highly effective in terminating episodes of primary headache.
acute headache; intravenous chlorpromazine; migraine attacks