Number of illnesses, including heart disease, mental problems, and other neurologic ailments, are three times more common among cluster headache patient
Cluster headaches are brief yet excruciating headaches that might occur several days or even weeks in a succession. The headaches might last between 15 minutes and three hours.
Researchers reported that cluster headache sufferers are more prone to other illnesses such as heart disease, mental disorders, and other neurologic diseases. three times more likely to have other medical conditions.
“Around the world, headaches have an incredibly negative impact on people’s quality of life, both economically and socially,” said study author Caroline Ran, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. “Our results show that people with cluster headaches not only have an increased risk of other illnesses, those with at least one additional illness missed four times as many days of work due to sickness and disability than those with just cluster headaches. They also have a higher chance of a long-term absence from work.”
The study compared 3,240 persons with cluster headaches aged 16 to 64 in Sweden to 16,200 adults of similar age, gender, and other variables. Men predominated, as is usual with cluster headaches. Researchers examined labor records and disability payouts to assess how many days people missed work owing to illness or disability in a given year.
92% of individuals with cluster headaches, or 2,977 persons, also had at least one other condition. 78% of those without cluster headaches, or 12,575 persons, had two or more diseases. Women had more diseases than males, 96% and 90%, respectively, of those with cluster headaches. The average number of days a person was absent due to sickness and incapacity was nearly twice as high in those with cluster headaches as in those without cluster headaches, with 63 days compared to 34 days.
People with cluster headaches with at least one other sickness missed four times as many days as those with cluster headaches but no other illness.
“Increasing our understanding of the other conditions that affect people with cluster headaches and how they impact their ability to work is very important,” added Ran. “This information can help us as we make decisions on treatments, prevention, and prognoses.”
One weakness of the study was the lack of personal data, such as smoking, alcohol usage, and BMI, which might influence illness incidence.
The study was published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Parvathy Sukumaran 
