Conditions with symptoms similar to cluster headaches

Generally, the common headache can be caused by numerous reasons, including tension or changes to blood vessels (vascular changes). However, only a few other conditions have symptoms that are similar to cluster headaches, such as:

• Migraine headaches, which cause one-sided pain in the head, face, and neck. However, while migraine pain starts on one side of the head, it may spread to the entire head-something a cluster headache does not do. Also, migraine auras, such as seeing bright lights or wavy lines prior to getting the headache, do not occur in cluster headaches. Cluster headaches appear suddenly without warning.
• Trigeminal neuralgia, which causes sudden, one-sided facial pain that is intensely painful but lasts for only a few seconds to a couple of minutes.
• Chronic paroxysmal hemicrania (CPH), which also causes short headache attacks, but mostly in women. Unlike cluster headaches, CPH responds well to a medication called indomethacin, which can help the health professional distinguish CPH from cluster headaches.