• D Valade and M El Amrani.
• Centre d'Urgences des Céphalés, Paris, France.
• Rev Neurol France. 2000 Jan 1; 156 Suppl 4: 4S57-61.

AbstractCluster Headache associates a severe pain generally unilateral and autonomic symptoms with a remarkable periodicity. In the first part we tried to explain the conception of physiopathology of these short lasting headache syndromes and in the second part we described the clinical features. The short lasting primary headaches are divided into two groups: those with marked autonomic activation which comprise chronic and episodic paroxysmal hemicrania, short lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT syndrome) and cluster headache. The second group includes two entities, one without autonomic activation: Hypnic Headache and one with mild autonomic features: Hemicrania Continua. The paroxysmal hemicranias are characterized by attack frequency ranges from 15 to 20 per day of short lasting attacks of unilateral pain that typically last 2 to 10 minutes, the severe pain is associated with autonomic symptoms and responds to treatment with indomethacin. The SUNCT syndrome has a less severe pain but marked autonomic activation during attacks, this syndrome is actually resistant to proposed therapy. The Hypnic Headache and the Hemicrania Continua have yet less severe pain with very mild or without autonomic features.

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