Nearly 50,000 Spaniards suffer from a rare headache of unknown origin – one of the most disabling in existence – and it mainly affects young men
not the type headache more common. It is usually of relatively short duration, but the pain is experienced so intensely that many patients describe it. as “appalling or unbearable”. It is characterized by the appearance of pain on only one side of the head and is accompanied by other ocular or nasal symptoms such as tearing, redness, congestion, and/or runny nose. In addition, it has a very particular characteristic: always appears at the same time. It’s cluster headache which, according to data from the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), nearly 50,000 people in Spain suffer from. The majority, men and young people.
A type of pain that the SEN describes as one of the most disabling that exist due to its intensity: 78% of patients suffer from significant restrictions in their daily life. Although it is not the most common, Dr. Pablo Irimia, coordinator of the Headache Study Group of the scientific society, explains that it is the most common within the group of trigeminal-autonomic headaches.
It is usually of relatively short duration, but the pain is experienced so intensely that many patients describe it as “excruciating or excruciating”
The neurologist details that it is characterized by the appearance of pain on only one side of the head and that it is generally accompanied of other symptoms. It is usually relatively short in duration. but the pain is experienced so intensely“that there are many patients who describe it as atrocious or unbearable. In addition, patients show great motor restlessness because they poorly tolerate being in a rest position.”
Always at the same time
Another curious characteristic that defines this ailment It usually appears almost always at the same timeespecially in the afternoons or nights, in 73% of cases. Crises often occur at certain times of the year, especially with changes of season at the beginning of spring or at the end of autumn. Doctors say that although the vast majority of patients experience it episodically -quite long periods of remission are combined, along with symptomatic periods-, in up to 20% of patients, cluster headache can become chronic.
Cluster headache is possibly one of the most underdiagnosed types of headache in Spain.
“Cluster headache is possibly one of the most underdiagnosed types of headache in Spain. Firstly, because if it does not become chronic, the remission periods can be so long that few patients, especially in the early years of his illnessthey don’t get to see a specialist”, says Dr. Pablo Irimia. In addition, it abounds, being a type of headache that, despite having such particular characteristicsis not very common, more than 57% of patients receive misdiagnoses.
Unknown origin
The origin of cluster headaches is currently unknown, although it seems that certain alterations in a brain structure called the hypothalamus have been identified. On the other hand, and although there are cases of cluster headache in childhood, adolescence and the elderlyIt is a disease that especially affects young adults around 30 years of age. And above all, to men, in a ratio of 4:1.
There is a diagnostic delay that, in many patients, can be more than three years, say the doctors
Currently, in Spain, about 1,000 new cases of this disease are diagnosed. However, there is a diagnostic delay that, in many patients, can be more than three years, warns the SEN. The consequence: by not being able to access adequate control and treatment, headache crises will become more and more common and it ends up becoming a chronic disease. When this is the case, your disease is not only much more disabling, but it they also respond worse to drugs.
No treatment
Doctors also calculate that 10% of the chronic forms of this disease They do not respond to medications. The SEN estimates that more than 50% of patients are not receiving adequate preventive treatment and that more than 30% do not have access to symptomatic treatments, especially oxygen therapy, which is one of the main therapies of choice.
“The usual treatment of patients is done with drugs, but resistant cases may benefit from surgical treatment,” says neurologist Pablo Irimia. The specialist stresses the importance of consulting headaches and that doctors can improve their clinical identification, to prevent the disease from becoming chronic.