This is revealed in an article in Stavanger Aftenblad where the newspaper follows a patient with cluster headaches participating in the study.

Researchers at the National Center for Headache Research (NorHead), affiliated with NTNU, are examining the effects of treating chronic migraines and cluster headaches with the nerve toxin botulinum toxin, popularly known as Botox.

The nerve knot lies behind the facial skeleton, just below the eye socket. Researchers believe that by injecting a dose of nerve toxin into it, the pain pathway is blocked.

«Most of these pathways go deep into the brain and are not accessible for treatment. But then there is a weak point. There is a nerve fiber that goes out of the skull and down into the face to the eye and nose, and back again. It has a switching point deep in the face, and that is our point,» says Tore Wergeland Meisingset, chief physician and project leader for the study, to the newspaper.

Researchers believe that chronic migraines and cluster headaches use the same nerve pathways to create pain. Therefore, there are two parallel studies using the same method.

The pilot study has shown that eight out of ten migraine patients have had an effect from the new method of administering injections, where the effect is defined by a 50 percent reduction in headache complaints.