This is a family of conditions that can cause severe debilitating and excruciating pain for many patients suffering from these diseases. Fortunately, they are not very common, but when they are they can take over and destroy people’s lives is they are not diagnosed and treated properly.
They are in the same family of diseases as Cluster Headache and have many symptoms in common and they all involve a component of the nervous system called the trigeminal nerve system.
All of these diseases occur only on one side of the head, most often around the eye. With the pain, often people will have other symptoms such as a tearing, runny nose, stuffy nose, redness and swelling of the eye or around the eye and other signs.
Patients may be so uncomfortable they are unable to lie down and sit still and may pace around uncomfortable, move around, be irritable or agitated, and be unable to stay in one place.
While the pain will only occur on one side of the head, patients sometimes have concomitant conditions such as migraine headache which means they may also have pain on the other side of the head.
The different conditions differentiate themselves by how long the pain lasts. Hemicrania continua, the name suggests is a continuous constant pain, though the severity of pain may get better or worse. Paroxysmal Hemicrania occurs multiple times a day and most often lasts minutes. SUNCT/SUNA are very rare and can most often last seconds.
If you experience any of these symptoms, make an appointment to see Dr. Sharon for a full evaluation and treatment.