Cluster Headaches: Symptoms and Treatment

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Cluster headaches are also called "suicide headaches" since it involves a terrible degree of pain. The pain is immeasurable, and is worse than migraines. With the term "cluster", it refers to the occurrence that happens periodically. The pain lasts at least 15 minutes and could last up to 180 minutes.

The exact cause of this disease is still yet to get discovered. A lot of experts relate cluster headaches to migraine headaches, believing that both start in the trigeminal nerve. Some associate it with the hypothalamus. Both explanations still do not have a study to back their beliefs, understanding, or opinions about cluster headaches, however both can be accepted in explaining the trait of this type of headache, which is its recurrent nature.

The symptoms of cluster headaches include the following:-

Extreme Pain

Deep, indescribable pain around the eye and/or temple is experience. The patients were noticed to have redness in one eye and tearing, and droopy eyelid. The women who experience this disease complain about the pain being worse than giving birth to a child.

The pain usually occurs behind the eye or around the temple, and sometimes spread out to the upper area of neck, and, at times, even to the shoulders.

The pain lasts from 15 minutes to three hours, and may occur two to 20 times per week. (The recurrence and severity of pain have brought some patients in the past to commit suicide.)

Could be Accompanied by Preliminary Signs, or Not

Some of the cardinal signs include droopy eyelid, redness of one eye, tearing, stuffy or runny nose, blushing or facial redness, sweating, and swelling. Most patients suffer a few of these autonomic symptoms, very few suffer all of what has been identified as symptoms, very little number of people do not complain about any of these, and much lesser number of people report another symptom he or she have noticed after a few occurrence.

Restlessness, Light and Noise Aversion

Patients become easily irritated by bright lights, and cannot tolerate noises, since these twp seem to intensify the pain. Stiff-neck, tenderness, jaw and/or tooth pain as aftermath of an occurrence. Cluster headaches can be treated with medications and/or therapies.

Abortive treatments, as the name implies, are directed at stopping or at least reducing the severity of the pain:-

* Inhalation of high-flow, concentrated oxygen
* Injections
* Nasal Spray
* Other orally taken drugs that act as pain relievers

Preventive treatments are for reducing the attack frequency and intensity of the disease:-

* Blood pressure drugs
* Antidepressants
* Anticonvulsants
* Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs

There is also a third option left, which is surgery. Nerve blocks, radio-surgery, and have been used as the last resort to help patients. No study or report that says any of these procedures carry a high risk. However, with the number of people getting treatment with the help of alternative therapies, surgeries are still considered as the last option.

Article Source: http://www.bigfreearticles.com

Cluster headaches are also called "suicide headaches" since it involves a terrible degree of pain. The pain is immeasurable, and is worse than migraines.

About the Author:
April Kerr owns website DHE45 which is all about the types of migraines and has articles about remedies for menstrual migraines and herbs for headaches.

Tags: cluster, migraine, headache, healt, pain, hypothalamus, temple, diseases, neck

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