Pressure-pain thresholds (PPT) were measured on fingers and toes with a hand-held electronic pressure algometer in 15 males and 15 females. The pressure algometer offered easy control of pressure application rate. The intra-individual coefficient of variation, based on repeated PPT measurements with a 1 week interval was 14%. The inter-individual coefficient of variation was 28% for females and 33% for males. In the course of 10 consecutive PPT measurements with short intervals (10 and 20 sec), no significant change in PPT was observed. PPT was found to be 50% higher in males than in females (P less than 0.0001). Slightly but significantly higher PPT values were found on the dominant compared to the non-dominant side (P less than 0.005).

Subcutaneous treatment of chronic tension-type headache with 2 mg and 4 mg sumatriptan, a selective 5-hydroxytryptamine1-like receptor agonist, was compared with placebo in a double-blind crossover study of 36 patients. The effect was evaluated using a 6-point verbal relief rating scale and by visual analog scale ratings of headache intensity before and for 2 h after treatment. Sumatriptan induced a modest but significantly greater headache relief than placebo, whereas no significant difference was found between the two doses of sumatriptan. Headache relief following sumatriptan was significant after 60 min and still seemed to be increasing after 120 min when the examination terminated. Three possible mechanisms of action of sumatriptan in tension-type headache are discussed.

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