Cluster headaches often appear in cyclical patterns or in periods that are referred to as cluster periods. This is a very painful kind of headache and can awaken patients in the middle of the night due to the severity of the pain involved with the condition. These headaches might last weeks or months and then be followed by remission periods where a patient does not experience headaches for some time.
The most common symptoms of Cluster Headaches are:
Many people with these headaches will want to pace or might sit and rock back and forth. There can also be light sensitivity in some patients or sensitivity to sound. In many cases, these headaches will occur at the same time of the day or several times a day on a predictable timeframe. Attacks are often intense and very painful but then subside rapidly, leaving the patient very tired.
The exact cause of Cluster Headaches is not known. Studies suggest that these headaches are not associated with normal headache triggers like stress, hormone changes, or foods. Alcohol does seem to worsen the pain of these headaches but may not be the actual cause of their presence. There is some indication that nitro-glycerine can cause these headaches in patients as well.
The risk factors for Cluster Headaches are:
The type of pain that patients experience with Cluster Headaches is very recognizable. The diagnosis of this condition is usually based on the patient’s reported symptoms, the severity of the pain of the headache, and the duration or repetition of the pain. Neurological studies can be done to help confirm this diagnosis as well, and MRI and CT scans are sometimes used to help rule out other potential causes for this kind of pain, such as brain tumours or brain bleeds.
There is no cure for Cluster Headaches. The goal of treatment protocols is to help make the pain less severe and to try and manage the cycle of these headaches to reduce the frequency of their occurrence. Fast-acting medications are usually recommended for this kind of headache. Many patients might be given triptans to take, such as Imitrex, which can help to increase blood flow in the body and works well to limit headache pain in most cases.
Other patients might be treated with oxygen through a mask or be given Local anaesthetics to help numb the affected areas. Octreotide are a brain hormone that can be injected, which helps treat Cluster Headaches in some patients as well. The pain reliever Dihydroergotamine has also proven to be effective at managing the pain of these headaches.
Prevention is the key method of management for these headaches. Patients might be given calcium channel blockers to help prevent headaches or corticosteroids that they can take to prevent the incidence of Cluster Headaches. Some bipolar medications, such as Lithium Carbonate, have also been shown to be effective for Cluster Headache prevention.
Nerve blocks can also be very helpful in some patients, while other patients benefit from non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation treatment. In rare cases, surgery will be recommended to implant specific medical devices that have been shown to help prevent the incidence of these headaches.