Ouch UK
Ouch UK, the organisation for the understanding of cluster headaches, was set up to support people who experience this painful and sometimes debilitating condition.
Contents
Overview
OUCH (UK) exists to:
- provide support for sufferers of cluster headaches and their families
- increase public awareness of the condition
- work to improve understanding of the condition, its prevalence and its effects
- liaise with the medical profession to improve diagnosis and treatment
- provide information and access to cluster headache sufferers to those engaged in research into the causes, treatments and cure for the condition; produce its own database based on the experience of sufferers
- maintain a website as a source of information and a contact area for those affected, and produce similar literature for those without internet access.
What are Cluster headaches?
Cluster headache (CH) always involves pain that is one sided (although it can switch sides) and the main defining feature is the association with one or more of the features normally described as follows:
- Reddening and tearing of the eye
- A runny or blocked nostril
- Droopy eyelid
- Constriction of the pupil
- Flushing and facial sweating
Although possible, it is very unusual for any of these not to occur in cluster headache. These features tend to come and go with each attack. However, some sufferers may continue to experience the constricted pupil and/or a droopy eyelid, especially after frequent attacks.
In most sufferers the headaches often start at the same time of year and at the same time during the day or night. The pain involved is excruciating and is probably one of the most painful conditions known to humans. Female sufferers have described each attack as being more painful than childbirth.
As few as 0.2% (two in a thousand) of the population suffer from CH, approximately the same number as for multiple sclerosis in the UK. Men are more likely to suffer than women, with an estimated male to female ratio of between 2.7 to 1, although this ratio appears to be steadily declining. CH can begin at any age, but most sufferers are more likely to start suffering in their 30s or 40s.
Contact
OUCH (UK) Admin
P O Box 62
Tenby
SA70 9AG