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Types And Symptoms Of Cluster Headaches |
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Types of cluster headaches:
Cluster
headaches are commonly divided into two types: episodic and chronic
cluster headache.
Episodic cluster headache attacks,
quite true to their name, occur in episodes of one or more daily,
usually at a particular time. They last for a few weeks or months. Then
there is a pain-free interval which may last for a few months or if the
patient is lucky, a few years as well.
Chronic
cluster headache may last for a period of even a few years with
these headaches occurring almost on a daily basis. If one experiences
episodic cluster headache with not even a month of pain-free remission,
then these headaches can be labeled as chronic cluster headaches. Almost
10 – 15 % of the sufferers experience the chronic variety of headache.
Hence, the control of these headaches is more difficult because the
patient does not respond quite well to the conventional forms of cluster
therapy.
The episodic cluster may change to a
chronic form and vice versa. And remission of even decades has been
reported between their attacks.
Symptoms of cluster headache:
Considered
to be an excruciatingly bad pain, the symptoms of a cluster headache are
varied. These are as follows:
•Like a migraine attack, the pain
in this case is also on one side of the head. But it may change
direction and occur on the other side of the head when a new series of
attacks starts.
•The pain is localized behind the eye and the region
around it.
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