Cluster headache

A distinctive syndrome of headaches, also known as migrainous neuralgia. There are two main clinical patterns of cluster headache — the episodic and the chronic: {{}}Episodic: This is the most common pattern of cluster headache. It is characterized by 1-3 short attacks of pain around the eyes per day, with these attacks clustered over a stretch of 1-2 months followed by a pain-free remission, a breathing spell. The average length of remission is a year. Chronic: Characterized by the absence of sustained periods of remission, chronic cluster headache may start with no past history of cluster headaches, or it may emerge several years after the patient has experienced an episodic pattern of cluster headaches. The episodic and acute forms of cluster headache may transform into one another, so it seems most likely that they are merely different-appearing clinical patterns of one and the same disease. Although the mechanisms underlying cluster headache and migraine may have a degree of commonality, cluster headache looks to be different and distinct as a disease from migraine. For example, propranolol is effective for migraine but not cluster headache while lithium benefits cluster headache syndrome but not migraine. Cluster headache has also gone by a bevy of other confusing names including ciliary neuralgia, erythroprosopalgia, histamine cephalalgia, Raeder’s syndrome, sphenopalatine

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cluster headache n a headache that is characterized by severe unilateral pain in the eye or temple, affects primarily men, and tends to recur in a series of attacks called also histamine cephalalgia, histamine cephalgia, Horton's syndrome

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a variant of migraine more common in men than in women (ratio 9:1). The unilateral pain around one eye is very severe and lasts between 15 minutes and three hours. The attacks commonly occur in the early hours of the morning but may occur eight times a day. The pain is associated with drooping of the eyelid (ptosis), a bloodshot eye, and/or excessive production of tears in the eye. The acute treatment is with antimigraine drugs (5HT₁ agonists) and prophylaxis is with such drugs as verapamil, lithium, or methysergide.

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a primary headache characterized by attacks of unilateral excruciating pain over the eye and forehead, with temperature elevation, lacrimation, and rhinorrhea; attacks last from 15 minutes to about an hour and tend to occur in clusters, sometimes a few times a day for two to eight weeks followed by months or years without occurrence. Because attacks identical to the spontaneous attacks may be induced in sufferers by subcutaneous injection of histamine phosphate, it is also known as histamine cephalalgia or h. See also chronic paroxysmal hemicrania, under hemicrania. Called also Horton disease and vasomotor h.