A new approach to emergency department therapy of migraine headache with intravenous haloperidol: a case series.

Six case reports are presented that describe the use of intravenous haloperidol for patients with migraine headache. Haloperidol was used in a dose of 5 mg following a 500- to 1000-cc bolus of normal saline. Headache was completely or substantially relieved in all six patients 25 to 65 min after administration of haloperidol; the median time until discharge was 51 min. Side effects were minimal or nonexistent. None of the patients returned to the Emergency Department (ED) for any reason over the next 48 h. It is concluded that haloperidol may play a role in treatment of migraine headache in the ED, and that further study is warranted.