Cluster headaches

Cluster headaches

Cluster headaches are severe pain attacks located on one side of the head and behind the eye. The headache comes in periods or so-called "clusters" of intense pain, and can last for periods from days to weeks.

What are cluster headaches?

Cluster headaches, also called cluster headaches, are severe and periodic attacks of headache. The pain is unilateral, and is usually behind or around one of the eyes. Cluster headaches are experienced as very intense and painful, and usually come in periods ("clusters") of 1-8 attacks per day over a period of 4-12 weeks at a time. Often the daily attacks come at the same time every day, and each attack can last between 15-180 minutes. Between each period of severe pain, no pain is usually felt. The vast majority experience long seizure-free periods, often up to months and years.

Chronic cluster headaches affect around 10-15%. People with such a chronic condition may experience daily attacks over a period of up to several years.

With cluster headaches, it is also very common to experience other additional symptoms at the same time as the headache, such as, among other things:

• Congested and/or runny nose

• Red and/or watery eye

• Increased sweating on the face and forehead

• Restlessness and nervousness

• Light shyness

• Reddish color in face and forehead

• Swollen eyelid

• Sensation of ear congestion

The additional symptoms, like the pain, are usually one-sided, and disappear at the same time as the pain subsides.

Causes of cluster headaches

Cluster headache is a fairly rare disease, and the cause of the condition is not fully known. It is probably our autonomic nervous system, the nervous system over which we have no control ourselves, and a deficiency or defect here, which is behind such a headache.

Cluster headaches and migraines can be somewhat similar in appearance, disease picture and symptoms. In case of cluster headache, however, the pain is more intense and lasts for much shorter periods, compared to migraine where the pain often lasts for a longer time. In addition, the additional symptoms of migraine are fewer and less prominent. A person with a cluster headache is often restless and nervous, in contrast to a person with a migraine attack, who often wants to lie still, free from external influences.

Unlike migraine, which affects women far more often than men, cluster headaches affect men 3 times as often as women. The disease usually strikes between the ages of 20 and 40. Hereditary factors also play a role, and if a close relative is affected by cluster headaches, this considerably increases the chance that descendants will also experience the same symptoms.

External factors, such as alcohol and smoke, are known factors that can trigger the periodic attacks of a cluster headache.

Treatment of cluster headaches

If you suspect you have a cluster headache, it is important that you see a doctor so that you can get good and correct pain relief and treatment.

There are usually two goals when treating cluster headaches:

• Reduce the pain of seizures.

• Prevent new and future attacks.

As seizure treatment, drugs in the form of triptans have been shown to give the best effect. The best and fastest onset of action is achieved when these medicines are given in the form of a syringe, i.e. when they are injected.

Sources: Norwegian electronic medical handbook, Norwegian medical handbook for health personnel, Tidsskrifet den Norske Legeforening