How dangerous are cluster headaches?
Despite the intense pain of cluster headaches, they are not life threatening. They are harmful to a person’s quality of life, however, and sometimes induce depression and/or anxiety disorders, especially if the headaches are uncontrolled by medication or other therapies. Doctors conduct thorough examinations of persons with cluster headaches in order to rule out truly life-threatening causes of headache like tumors or subarachnoid hemorrhages (bleeding in the membranes of the brain).