Neuro-psychological effects of cluster headaches

We are again in a cluster season. We do not see any cluster headache patients for months and then dozens come in within weeks. It is not allergies, barometric pressure or any other earth phenomena that trigger cluster headaches in so many people at once. It has been speculated that solar activity may be the trigger and I just checked the NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory website and found that the sun has “active regions galore”. I wrote about solar activity as a possible culprit last October when we had another wave of cluster patients. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about the sun, but we do have many effective treatments for cluster headaches, including intravenous magnesium, occipital nerve blocks, oxygen, injectable sumatriptan, verapamil, and for chronic cluster headaches, Botox injection.

A recent study by British neurologists in the journal Headache described the severe impact of cluster headaches on quality of life and neuro-psychological symptoms. The researchers found that cluster headache patients had normal intelligence and executive functions, but had worse working memory, disturbance of mood, and poorer quality of life compared with healthy controls. Similar findings have been found in patients with other chronic pain conditions as well. It is most likely that cognitive impairment and mood changes can be reversed with effective treatment of pain.