Patients suffering from cluster headaches face excruciating pain and a dual problem, as they are often misdiagnosed by doctors and because it is among the most severe and painful types of headaches. In fact, a new study has shown that patients experiencing cluster headaches rank the pain it causes as worse than most other painful experiences in life, including childbirth, kidney stones, and pancreatitis.
Dr. Larry Schur, a co-author of the study and a psychology professor at the University of West Georgia, stated, "Comparing cluster headaches to other common painful experiences can help find the different neural correlates associated with the headache. Headache is a terrifying word, but this particular type of headache can cause unbearable pain for sufferers, which can exceed the pain of burns or bee stings.”
It is worth noting that classifying cluster headaches as worse and more painful than other life experiences like childbirth or kidney stones serves to highlight this painful condition for many individuals who suffer from it. Researchers believe this classification can help patients share their experiences of cluster headaches more widely, especially given the lack of targeted studies and research on this painful type of headache and the rarity of specific medications and treatments for it.
Dr. Rashmi Halakr Singh, an assistant professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, who did not participate in the study, remarked, "I think one way to overcome this is by raising awareness about what this issue is and how it affects human life." Additionally, Dr. Schur urged doctors to consider cluster headaches as an emergency condition due to the intensity of pain it causes, linking it to a high risk of suicide. He noted that with limited medications to treat the condition, high-flow oxygen could help some patients, and triptan drugs taken nasally or intravenously can relieve or alleviate the acute pain.
In 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug galcanezumab (Eli Lilly) for the prevention of episodic cluster headaches and alleviation of its symptoms. Unfortunately, cluster headaches are often misdiagnosed by doctors, as many patients take more than a year or even up to five years to receive an accurate diagnosis. Dr. Schur stated that women might be particularly prone to misdiagnosis because migraines are more common in women, meaning it does not help that many neurologists are taught that cluster headaches primarily affect males.
Dr. Halakr Singh added, "Since this idea is so entrenched, I believe many women experiencing cluster headaches may be overlooked and told they are suffering from migraines instead of being accurately diagnosed. There are many women with cluster headaches, and the gender difference may not be as significant as we have previously learned. Therefore, we need to do better work to recognize cluster headaches for a better understanding of them and how to treat them."
Furthermore, Dr. Halakr Singh pointed out that patients suffering from lateral headaches should be evaluated for cluster headaches, questioning how long the pain lasts in the absence of medication and adding, "We should also ask about the presence of involuntary cranial symptoms, whether they occur in the context of cluster headache pain or not, and whether they are primarily linked to the headache. These are important questions that can help differentiate cluster headaches from other conditions."
During the study, researchers asked 1,604 patients suffering from cluster headaches to rate their pain on a scale from 1 to 10. Cluster headaches ranked first with a score of 9.7, followed by labor pain at 7.2, pancreatitis at 7.0, and kidney inflammation at 6.9.
