Cluster headache

Cluster headaches are rare, extremely painful and debilitating headaches that occur in groups or clusters.

Signs and symptoms
Cluster headache sufferers typically experience very severe headaches of a piercing quality near one eye or temple that last for fifteen minutes to three hours. The headaches are usually unilateral and occasionally change sides.

Cluster headaches are frequently associated with Horner's syndrome: ptosis (drooping eyelids), conjunctival injection (which results in red, watery eyes), lacrimation (tearing), miosis (constricted pupil), eyelid edema, nasal congestion, rhinorrhea (runny nose), and sweating on the affected side of the face. The neck is often stiff or tender in association with cluster headaches afterwards, and jaw and teeth pain are sometimes reported.

The location and type of pain has sometimes been compared to a "brain-freeze" headache caused from rapidly drinking or eating something very cold, also known as an "Ice Cream Headache,"; this analogy is limited, but may offer some insight into the cluster headache experience. Persons who have experienced both cluster headaches and other painful conditions (childbirth, migraines) report that the pain of cluster headaches is far worse, sometimes 100 times more severe than a migraine. The pain has been compared to being stabbed repeatedly in the eye with an ice pick or hot poker. It has been reported as the most severe pain known to medical science, worse than amputation without anesthetics.

During an attack, the person is restless and cannot sit still and may pace or even become severely agitated. Sensitivity to light is more typical of a migraine, as is vomiting, but both can be present in some sufferers of cluster headache, although rare.

Cluster headaches are occasionally referred to as "alarm clock headaches", because of the regularity of its timing and its ability to wake a person from sleep. Thus it has been known to strike at the same time each night or at a certain period after falling asleep, or at precisely the same time during the day a week later. This has prompted researchers to speculate an involvement of the brain's "biological clock" or circadian rhythm. They may also be described as "suicide headaches", a reference to the excruciating pain and resulting desperation that has culminated in actual suicide.

Episodic or chronic
In episodic cluster headache, these attacks occur once or more daily, often at the same times each day, for a period of several weeks, followed by a headache-free period lasting weeks, months, or years. Approximately 10–15% of cluster headache sufferers are chronic; they can experience multiple headaches every day for years.

Cluster headaches occurring in two or more cluster periods lasting from 7 to 365 days with a pain-free remission of one month or longer between the clusters are considered episodic. If the attacks occur for more than a year without a pain-free remission of at least one month, the condition is considered chronic. The condition may change from chronic to episodic and from episodic to chronic. Remission periods lasting for decades before the resumption of clusters have been known to occur.

Other names
Cluster headaches have been called by several other names in the past including Erythroprosopalgia of Bing, Ciliary neuralgia, Migrainous neuralgia, Erythromelagia of the head, Horton's headache, Histaminic cephalalgia, Petrosal neuralgia, spenopalatine neuralgia, Vidian neuralgia, Sluder's neuralgia, and Hemicrania angioparalyticia.

Prevalence
While migraines are diagnosed more often in women, cluster headaches are diagnosed in men at a rate 2.5 to 3 times greater than in women. This gap between the sexes has narrowed over the past few decades, and it is not clear whether cluster headaches are becoming more frequent in women, or whether they are merely being better diagnosed. Limited epidemiological studies have suggested prevalence rates of between 56 and 326 people per 100,000. Latitude plays a role in the occurrence of cluster headaches, which are more common as one moves away from the equator towards the poles. It is believed that greater changes in day length are responsible for the increase.

Pathophysiology
Cluster headaches are classified as vascular headaches. The intense pain is caused by the dilation of blood vessels which creates pressure on the trigeminal nerve. While this process is the immediate cause of the pain, the etiology (underlying cause or causes) is not fully understood.

Hypothalamus
Among the most widely accepted theories is that cluster headaches are due to an abnormality in the hypothalamus. This can explain why cluster headaches frequently strike around the same time each day, and during a particular season, as one of the functions the hypothalamus performs is regulation of the biological clock and metabolic abnormalities have also been reported in patients.

The hypothalamus is responsive to light&mdash;daylength and photoperiod; olfactory stimuli, including pheromones; steroids, including sex steroids and corticosteroids, neurally transmitted information arising in particular from the heart, the stomach, and the reproductive system; autonomic inputs; blood-borne stimuli, including leptin, ghrelin, angiotensin, insulin, pituitary hormones, cytokines, blood plasma concentrations of glucose and osmolarity, etc.; and stress. These particular sensitivities may underlay the causes, triggers, and methods of treatment of cluster headache.

Genetics
There is a genetic component to cluster headaches, although no single gene has been identified as the cause. First-degree relatives of sufferers are more likely to have the condition than the population at large. However, genetics appears to play a much smaller role in cluster headache than in some other types of headaches.

Triggers
Nitroglycerin (glyceryl trinitrate) can sometimes induce cluster headaches in sufferers in a manner similar to spontaneous attacks. Ingestion of alcohol is recognized as a common trigger of cluster headaches when a person is in cycle or susceptible. Exposure to hydrocarbons (petroleum solvents, perfume) is also recognized as a trigger for cluster headaches. Some patients have a decreased tolerance to heat, and becoming overheated may act as a trigger. Napping causes a headache for some sufferers. The role of diet and specific foods in triggering cluster headaches is controversial and not well understood.

Treatment
Cluster headaches often go undiagnosed for many years, being confused with migraine or other causes of headache.

Medically, cluster headaches are considered benign, but because of the extreme and often debilitating pain associated with them, a severe attack is nevertheless treated as a medical emergency by doctors who are familiar with the condition. Doctors who are less familiar with the disease may neglect sufferers in emergency rooms and force them to endure inordinate spans of time before receiving treatment, if any treatment at all is granted. Sometimes, sufferers of the disease may even be accused of drug-seeking behavior.

Over-the-counter pain medications (such as aspirin, paracetamol, and ibuprofen) have no effect on the pain from a cluster headache. Unlike other headaches such as migraines and tension headaches, cluster headaches do not respond to biofeedback.

Some have reported partial relief from narcotic pain killers, but the frequency of their use in a cluster cycle (1–8 or more times a day) often disqualifies them from use and they are mostly ineffective due to the intensity of the pain involved in cluster attacks. Anecdotal evidence indicates that cluster headaches can be so excruciating that even morphine does little to ease the pain. However, some newer medications like fentanyl have shown promise in early studies and use.

Medications to treat cluster headaches are classified as either abortives or prophylactics (preventatives). In addition, short-term transitional medications (such as steroids) may be used while prophylactic treatment is instituted and adjusted.

Abortive treatment
During the onset of a cluster headache, the most rapid abortive treatment is the inhalation of pure oxygen (8 litres per minute in a non-rebreathing apparatus). When used at the onset this can abort the attack in as little as 5 minutes. Once an attack is at its peak, using oxygen therapy appears to have little effect. Alternative first-line treatment is subcutaneous administration of Triptan drugs, like sumatriptan and zolmitriptan. . Previously vaso-constrictors such as ergot compounds were also used, and sufferers report a similar relief by taking strong cups of coffee immediately at the onset of an attack. Because of the rapid onset of an attack, the triptan drugs are usually taken by subcutaneous injection rather than by mouth. While available as a nasal spray, these are seldom effective to sufferers of Cluster Headache due to the swelling of the nasal passages during an attack.

Lidocaine (or any topical anesthetic) sprayed into the nasal cavity may relieve or stop the pain, normally in a few minutes, but long term use is not suggested due to the side effects and possible damage to the nasal cavities. A positive result may indicate a contact of two mucous membranes caused by genetics, a congenital defect, trauma or even weight gain - the most common contact caused by a minor, undetected deviated septum. This may be exacerbated and/or temporarily alleviated by some of the conditions/treatments listed in this page. A simple, out-patient nasalplasty, rhinoplasty, or septoplasty can separate the contact points and stop the pain immediately and permanently. (OFCN.org)

With abortive treatments often only shortening the headache from reaching its peak rather than aborting it entirely, preventive treatment is always indicated for cluster headaches, to be started at the first sign of a new cluster cycle.

Cool showers have helped about 15% of people who try them, while not aborting the attack, they allow the body to cool and thus help to reduce the level of pain. Other abortive remedies that work for some and not for others include ice, hot showers, breathing cold air, caffeine, and drinking large amounts of water in the early stages of an attack. Vigorous exercise has been shown in some cases to be very effective in relieving and aborting an acute attack (this produces the same result as the oxygen therapy by increasing the levels of oxygen within the body).

Prophylactic treatment
A wide variety of prophylactic medicines are in use, and patient response to these is highly variable. Current Europeran guidelines suggest the use of the calcium channel blocker verapamil at a dose of at least 240mg daily and steroids, such as prednisolone, are also effective with a high dose given for the first five days before tappering down. Methysergide, lithium and the anticonvulsant topiramate are recommended as alternative treatments.

Muscle relaxants and atypical anti-psychotics have also been used.

Magnesium supplements have been shown to be of some benefit in about 40% of patients. Melatonin has also been reported to help some. Feverfew, an herb used to treat migraine, is not clearly beneficial according to anecdotes from web forums. A large proportion of those trying kudzu have reported supression of the symptoms.

There is substantial anecdotal evidence that serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin (mushrooms) and LSD and LSA d-Lysergic acid amide (Rivea corymbosa seeds) abort cluster periods and extend remission periods.

A clinical study of these treatments under the auspices of MAPS is being developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital. Melatonin, psilocybin, serotonin, and the triptan abortive drugs are closely-related tryptamines.

There have been a few cases where a root canal treatment on a bad tooth made the headache disappear.

Other types of headache

 * Chronic Paroxysmal Hemicrania (CPH) is a condition similar to cluster headache, but CPH responds well to treatment with the anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin and the attacks are very much shorter, often lasting only seconds.


 * Some people with extreme headaches of this nature (especially if they are not unilateral) may actually have an ictal headache. Anti-convulsant medications can significantly improve this condition so sufferers should consult a physician about this possibility.


 * It is also possible to have two or more different types of headaches, complicating diagnosis and treatment.