Onabotulinum Toxin A (Botox) for the Treatment of Persistent Post-Stroke and Vascular Headache

The proposed study will be a randomized, open-label, comparator controlled study investigating the safety and efficacy of Botox in Persistent Post "Stroke" (encompassing ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, CVST, Cervical Vessel Dissection and RCVS) headache patients relative to Placebo with or without concomitant standard pharmacologic and Non-pharmacologic treatments. The study population will be a stratified random sample of stroke patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria and consenting to study. The study groups will consist of 40 patients randomly allocated to receiving Botox according to the treatment regime specified below and 40 patients randomly allocated to Non-Botox standard treatments, to a total study population of 80 patients. A Screening Questionnaire will be developed allowing for the identification of persistent/chronic post stroke headache and the classification into novel vs previous stable migraine sub-groups. Such dichotomization will not affect randomization process up and until one sub-group total had been met. If one arm is met prematurely, the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee will inform study investigators and only patients of the remaining sub-population will be randomized post- screening (stratified random sampling). To facilitate Data collection and monitoring. Patients will be seen in face to face encounters every 12 weeks with interim phone interviews every 4 weeks. A cross platform mobile based application (Migraine Buddy, Healint Analytics)15 will be utilized with patient subjects to allow for documentation of migraine attacks including severity and the facility of real-time documentation of temporal profile, migraine triggers, and medications as well as facility for remote monitoring by study investigators. Subjects will be taught how to use application to export data to study investigators in order to allow timely a communication of potential adverse and serious adverse events. Additionally, the investigators will be undergoing a retrospective analysis of headache patients treated at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital Stroke Clinic in order to add to the literature regarding the clinical characteristics and putative treatment effects in this unique patient population. Treatment Protocol: Botox 200 IU vials for 40 patients for the duration of study (4 treatment cycles); Treatment will be based on the PREEMPT study full treatment and follow the pain protocol to a total of 195 IU in standard injection sites.