Question 1

Why are cluster headaches called the suicide disease?

Accepted Answer

Cluster headaches earn the name because their pain is so extreme that sufferers describe wanting to escape it at any cost. Surveys rate the attacks among the most intensely painful human conditions, often above childbirth and kidney stones, and the desperation they produce is severe.

Question 2

What does a cluster headache feel like?

Accepted Answer

Sufferers describe it as a red-hot ice pick or knitting needle driven behind one eye. The pain is one-sided, peaks within minutes, and lasts from fifteen minutes to three hours, often accompanied by a watering eye, a running nostril, and a drooping eyelid.

Question 3

How are cluster headaches treated?

Accepted Answer

Ordinary painkillers work too slowly. The fastest treatments are breathing high-flow, one-hundred-percent oxygen through a mask and injectable or inhaled triptan drugs, both of which can stop an attack within minutes. Preventive medication reduces attack frequency during a bout.

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The Clock That Brings the Fire