Clinical features of cluster headache
Cluster headaches are characterized by severe, one-sided attacks of pain lasting 15-180 minutes, occurring in the area of the eyes, forehead, or temple. The attacks occur with a frequency ranging from one attack every other day to eight attacks per day.
The pain is accompanied by at least one of the following symptoms, occurring on the same side: redness of the eye, watery eyes, nasal congestion, runny nose, increased sweating of the forehead and face, constricted pupil, drooping eyelid, swelling of the eyelids, and restlessness with an urge to move. The attacks occur in recurring clusters. These clusters are interspersed with headache-free periods of varying lengths. The precise diagnostic criteria can be found in the International Classification of Headache Disorders . You can use the headache rapid test to directly assess the symptoms.
Cluster headache attack in the left eye
Episodic cluster headaches occur in periods lasting from 7 days to one year, with an average duration of 4-12 weeks. Pain-free intervals are at least 14 days.
Chronic cluster headache is characterized by the occurrence of cluster attacks over a period of more than one year without headache-free periods or with only a short headache-free period of less than 14 days.
Formerly used, but now obsolete, terms for this headache disorder are: Bing's erythroprosopalgia, ciliary or migraine neuralgia according to Harris, erythromelalgia of the head, Horton's syndrome, histamine headache, Petrosus neuralgia according to Gardner, neuralgia of the sphenopalatine ganglion, Vidian neuralgia, Sluder's neuralgia, hemicrania periodica neuralgiformis.
The average age at first onset of cluster headache is 28 to 30 years. However, cluster headaches can also be observed for the first time at significantly later ages. In contrast, cluster headaches are only found in rare, exceptional cases in children and adolescents. The incidence rate of cluster headaches is 15.6 per 100,000 people per year for men and 4.0 per 100,000 people per year for women. The average incidence rate is 9.8 per 100,000 people per year. According to various studies, the prevalence of cluster headaches in the general population is approximately 0.9%. On average, according to a survey by the Cluster Headache Self-Help Group (CSG) in Germany, it takes eight years for a correct diagnosis to be made.
Cluster headache is the only primary headache disorder that significantly predominates in men. Between 70% and 90% of patients with chronic and episodic cluster headache are men.