Table 4

Non-invasive neuromodulation clinical trials in acute and preventive cluster headache treatments

Device type*Studies (n)Enrolled population
(total n)
Blinded studies
(n)†
Sham-controlled
studies (n)
Percentage of studies evaluating IHS-
recommended endpoints
Primary endpoint
(%)‡
Secondary endpoint
(%)‡
Acute cluster headache treatments
 Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS)225322100100
Preventive cluster headache treatments
 Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS)9700100100
 Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)132000100
  • *All references for studies in this table are listed in the online supplementary references.

  • †Double-blind or better.

  • ‡Percentage of efficacy studies in which either a primary or a secondary endpoint recommended by the International Headache Society was used. Safety studies were excluded from this calculation.

  • §Marin et al’s study (used for recent Food and Drug Administration clearance) not included here as it was published outside of predefined date range.

  • IHS, International Headache Society.