Research Study of Greater Occipital Nerve Block As A Treatment For Prolonged Migraine Attacks

Greater Occipital Nerve Blocks (GONB) are a common procedure used for the treatment of headache. The GONB procedure involves a series of injections into the greater occipital nerve (a spinal nerve located at the back of your head). The purpose of this study is to determine whether GONB is effective for the treatment of prolonged migraine attacks. This study is placebo controlled, which means that half of the patients participating will receive injections of active study drug (lidocaine plus bupivicaine) and half of the patients will receive injections of saline (placebo). The study is also blinded which means that neither you nor the study staff will know whether you received active study drug or placebo. The study remains blinded only for the first 30 minutes, at which point additional treatments (including GONB) can be administered at the discretion of your treating physician. 40 patients are expected to participate in this research study. This study is being conducted at Thomas Jefferson University only.