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Confirmed User
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Tampa, FL
Posts: 1,671
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeSmoke
Cluster headache, nicknamed "suicide headache", is a neurological disease that involves, as its most prominent feature, an immense degree of pain. "Cluster" refers to the tendency of these headaches to occur periodically, with active periods interrupted by spontaneous remissions. The cause of the disease is currently unknown. It affects approximately 0.1% of the population, and men are more commonly affected than women.
The duration of the common attack ranges from as short as 15 minutes to three hours or more. The onset of an attack is rapid, and most often without the preliminary signs that are characteristic of a migraine. However, some sufferers report preliminary sensations of pain in the general area of attack, often referred to as "shadows", that may warn them an attack is imminent. They are often initially mistaken for brain tumors and multiple sclerosis until patients are treated with corticosteroids and then imaged.
The pain of cluster headaches is markedly greater than in other headache conditions, including severe migraines, and experts believe that it may be the most severe pain known to medical science. It has been described by female patients as being more severe than childbirth.
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Yep... that's what I go through. But, mine have NEVER lasted for only 15 minutes. They have always been on the other end of that spectrum (3+ hours). I do get an "aura" right before they come, and I typically start downing Percocets right when I feel that aura. The reason they are called suicide headaches (according to my neurologist) is because of the number of people who have committed suicide because they couldn't deal with the pain. My own doctor says he has had a couple of patients himself.
It's funny, because I have had these for many years, and I never really researched them too much because I've always just dealt with them the best I could and trusted my doctor. This thread has made me do a few Google searches and I'm quite amazed at some of the stuff I've read....
This is my experience exactly..
Quote:
What can cause a grown man to groan out loud, rock back and forth on the floor, dig his hands into the carpet, cradle his head or crawl on his knees?
The answer is a cluster headache, rare, intensive kind of pain that affects about 1 million Americans ? 90 percent of them male ? according to the National Headache Foundation.
The headaches are so named because they occur in "groups" or clusters, several times a day for several weeks before they subside. Months later, they start all over again.
Taking two aspirin and waiting will not help, says ABCNEWS Medical Correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman.
The prevailing explanation for cluster and migraine headaches is that dilation of blood vessels causes the pain. Doctors use oxygen to treat the condition, because it constricts brain blood vessels; researchers are looking at the role of the hypothalamus in the brain.
Like a 'Hot Poker in Your Eye'
Those who suffer from cluster headaches say there's nothing mild about them.
"It feels like you have a hot poker stuck in your eye," says Pat Kelly, a cluster headache sufferer.
"I've had broken bones and burns and I've had nothing compared to it," said Dan Skopek, who got his first cluster headache 10 years ago at age 21.
Though doctors don't know why, men are affected more often than women. Smoking and drinking are notorious headache triggers.
Most cluster headaches have a seasonal rhythm, occurring most often in the fall or the spring.
But up to 20 percent of sufferers have chronic cluster headaches, every day.
"Patients will often cry or scream or pace or pound their heads or their fists against the wall," says Dr. Joel Saper, a neurologist from the Michigan Head-Pain and Neurological Institute. "It's a devastating experience, a torturing experience."
'Suicide Headaches'
Patients and doctors call them suicide headaches.
Dr. Seymour Diamond, of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, says he has seen cases go to extremes: "The only suicides I've ever seen in any headache patients have been men who have had clusters."
Cluster headache sufferers feel compelled to move around, bang their heads and cry out. Migraine headache patients typically seek a quiet dark room to lie down in. An individual cluster headache lasts 45 minutes to two hours, while migraines can go on for several days.
"You beat your head on the wall, on the floor, because that feels better than the headache," Skopek says. "If the doctors told me that it was my arm that was causing the headaches and I had to have it amputated I would have done it in a second."
After being misdiagnosed and overmedicated, Skopek says he was ready to bid his wife and children goodbye and commit suicide.
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http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/PainManage...=126909&page=1 |