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Study finds cluster headaches can ‘dramatically interfere with people’s work capacity’

cluster-headache
Photo: Pornpak Khunatorn/iStockphoto

Stockholm — Employees who experience short, severe and frequent headaches – known as cluster headaches – average nearly twice as many missed workdays as their colleagues, according to a study recently published by the American Academy of Neurology.

“Cluster headaches are short but extremely painful headaches that can occur many days, or even weeks, in a row,” AAN says. They may last 15 minutes to three hours, and frequently occur above or around the eye. In the United States, about 1 out of 1,000 people experience cluster headaches.

For the study, a group of Sweden-based researchers analyzed data for 3,240 Swedes of working age who were treated for cluster headaches in hospitals or by specialists from 2001 to 2010, and compared it with data for 16,200 members of the general population. They then examined a registry to determine how many sick and disability days each study participant used in 2010. The average number of sick and disability days for workers with cluster headaches totaled 63, compared with 34 for those without the headaches.

 

Other findings:

  • Female workers with cluster headaches used an average of 84 sick and disability days, compared with 53 days for male workers.
  • Workers with cluster headaches who completed only elementary school used an average of 86 sick and disability days, compared with 65 days for those who completed high school and 41 days for those with a college education.

“This study shows that cluster headaches dramatically interfere with people’s work capacity,” study author Christina Sjöstrand, of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, said in a press release. “More research is needed on how to best treat and manage this form of headache so people who experience them have fewer days in pain and miss fewer days of work.”

The study was published online Feb. 5 in the AAN journal Neurology.

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Kimberley Busbin
September 22, 2020
From the depths of my soul, I’d like to extend my endless gratitude to the researchers and those who fund them. I’ve lived with extreme chronic cluster headaches for over 17 years. Throughout those years, so much has been unwillingly lost; multiple jobs, quality of life, and as ashamed as I am to admit it, I’ve even lost hope - simply because my children have suffered due to my uncontrollable condition. Furthermore, continuously trying to fight away depression through so much physical and emotional pain, is almost laughable. Why fight at all if the battle can never be won? I don’t understand how a debilitating illness such as the chronic Type of this headache, can just go without concern in the field of medical research for so long. If suffering were measured by money, I’d be more “well off” than the research physicians that chose the easier topics. Nevertheless, even though I’ve lost hope numerous times in the past, it’s never lost me... God continues to be and always has been my biggest fan, and I His.

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Patti
March 26, 2021
Has anyone ever looked into hormonal aspects that could cause cluster headaches? I ask because I had them for years!! From when I was a teenager until a few years ago. They were horrible and debilitating. Yet after going through menopause, they've stopped. I used to get cluster headaches daily, often multiple times a day. Now I'm lucky if I get them once or twice a year! It has been such a relief not having them. I feel for those who still do. I'm not sure who I would contact but again, I question if there could be any connection to hormones causing them.