Executive summary: Cluster headaches cause approximately 5 million person-days of extreme suffering (≥9/10 pain) annually worldwide, and while less prevalent than other conditions, they represent an opportunity to eliminate significant extreme suffering at relatively low cost through existing treatments.
Key points:
Cluster headaches affect ~3 million people globally and are considered among the most painful conditions known to medicine, rated significantly more painful than labor, gunshot wounds, or bone fractures.
Current health metrics like DALYs undervalue extreme suffering, as they don’t account for the vast differences in pain intensity suggested by the heavy-tailed valence hypothesis.
Promising treatments exist, particularly tryptamines (psilocybin, LSD, DMT), which show high efficacy but face legal restrictions limiting access.
The global burden includes ~74,200 person-years in pain annually, with ~46,200 at severe pain (≥7/10) and ~13,600 at extreme pain (≥9/10).
Key interventions include funding research, supporting advocacy organizations like Clusterbusters, enabling legal access to tryptamine treatments, and improving diagnosis/treatment access in developing countries.
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Executive summary: Cluster headaches cause approximately 5 million person-days of extreme suffering (≥9/10 pain) annually worldwide, and while less prevalent than other conditions, they represent an opportunity to eliminate significant extreme suffering at relatively low cost through existing treatments.
Key points:
Cluster headaches affect ~3 million people globally and are considered among the most painful conditions known to medicine, rated significantly more painful than labor, gunshot wounds, or bone fractures.
Current health metrics like DALYs undervalue extreme suffering, as they don’t account for the vast differences in pain intensity suggested by the heavy-tailed valence hypothesis.
Promising treatments exist, particularly tryptamines (psilocybin, LSD, DMT), which show high efficacy but face legal restrictions limiting access.
The global burden includes ~74,200 person-years in pain annually, with ~46,200 at severe pain (≥7/10) and ~13,600 at extreme pain (≥9/10).
Key interventions include funding research, supporting advocacy organizations like Clusterbusters, enabling legal access to tryptamine treatments, and improving diagnosis/treatment access in developing countries.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.