what can yall tell me bout "cluster headaches"?!
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The pain of a cluster headache commences quickly, without warning, and reaches a crescendo within 2 to 15 minutes. It is often excruciating in intensity, and is deep, nonfluctuating, and explosive in quality; only occasionally is it pulsatile. In addition, 10 to 20 percent of patients report superimposed paroxysms of stabbing, icepick-like pains in the periorbital region that last for a few seconds and may occur once or several times in rapid succession; this paroxysmal pain usually heralds the end of an attack. The symptoms resolve in 1 to 2 minutes (Ekbom, 1975).
The pain usually begins in, around, or above the eye or the temple (Fig. 6-3); occasionally the face, neck, ear, or hemicranium may be affected (Sutherland and Eadie, 1972). It is always unilateral, and generally affects the same side in subsequent bouts. However, it may shift to the corresponding region of the opposite side in 15 percent of patients (Manzoni et al, 1983b), usually for the duration of a bout, less often switching sides within a bout. Many patients prefer to be upright and active when an attack is in progress, but this is reported with a frequency that is not high enough to be useful diagnostically (Russell, 1981).
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They are awful. For info see:
http://familydoctor.org/handouts/035.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_headache
http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/000786.htm
http://www.medicinenet.com/cluster_headaches/article.htm
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000786.htm
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