No-pain clusters?

You knew that you can have migraine and yet no pain.  But did you know that you can have cluster "headaches" without pain too?  That was the news from Neurology, in a report from Neurologist Dr Rolf Salvensen in August 2000.  The report follows a man who experienced other symptoms of clusters – a stuffed up nose, drooping eyelid, and pupil contraction on one side, and yet no pain.

This is important to know, because first it will help us better diagnose clusters.  Second, it will help us better understand them.  Many have theorized that the other symptoms are simply a reaction to the pain.  Now it seems that this isn’t true – the other symptoms have a life of their own!  This is old news now to the neurology world, but clusters themselves are still a mystery being investigated.