Oxygen for Cluster Headaches: an Old Treatment with New Credibility

Cluster headaches have been called worse than the pains of labor, broken bones, burns or passing a kidney stone. The pain is sometimes so agonizing that they have been called 'suicide headaches'.

These are not common stress headaches or even chronic migraine headaches. These are the 'worst of the worst' headaches imaginable.

Cluster headaches typically affect one side of the head and they do not switch sides. They happen in clusters or groups and strike at the same time of the day or night. These headaches can go on for several weeks, then disappear mysteriously, only to reappear again, days, weeks or months later.

Some people have months between cluster groups, then have a series of two or three severe headaches. Studies show that there is a familial risk of cluster headaches in families--a genetic component, but it is not clearly understood yet. Cluster headaches are more common in men than women and more common in smokers than nonsmokers.

Cluster headaches strike about a million people in the US each year. This is much less frequent than the more common migraine headache. Since there are so many more migraine sufferers, much more research has been done to find a cure for migraines than cluster headaches. Most people who have cluster headaches are misdiagnosed as having migraines or another pain syndrome called trigeminal neuralgia.

One of the treatments used for cluster headaches is oxygen, and it has been recently proven to be a simple, effective treatment. For years, breathing pure oxygen has been thought to help, but just recently in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), breathing a high concentration of oxygen at 12 liters per minute through a face mask for 15 minute intervals has proven to make the sufferer pain free in 78 % of the studied cases. The high profile of the JAMA study has increased the awareness and creditability of this treatment.

There are other treatments for cluster headaches including medications and injections, but oxygen is the fastest acting and most effective. Oxygen is safe, relatively inexpensive and works quickly compared to the other treatments. The other treatments have many side effects including chest pain or tightness in the chest, neck pain, numbness and sometimes fainting, seizures and allergic reactions.

In addition to the severe side effects of some of the medications used for cluster headaches, the medications also need to be taken daily, whether there is a headache attack or not, and they can take up to two weeks to start working and are not 100% effective. Oxygen therapy for cluster headaches is proving to be the best answer to helping sufferers of these severe and debilitating headaches.

Sources:

Doreen K. Satter, RN
Neurology Now Magazine, March, April, 2010