This book describes Ice Pick Headaches, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

I was informed of this type of headache by a patient who told me that he was diagnosed with Needle in the eye syndrome or ice pick syndrome after suffering sudden pain in the forehead above his right eye.

I have never heard of it and promptly look it up in my medical books.

I found that Ice pick headaches are called:
1. Primary stabbing headaches
2. Idiopathic stabbing headaches
3. Jabs and jolts
4. Opthalmodynia periodica
5. Short-lived head pain syndrome
6. Needle-in-the-eye syndrome

I could just imagine an ice pick being aimed at my brain or a needle going towards my eye.

Ice pick headaches are painful, severe headaches that happen suddenly.
They are often mentioned as feeling like a stabbing blow, or a series of jabs, from an ice pick.
They do not give any warning before striking, and can be excruciating and debilitating.
They are also short, typically lasting no longer than a minute.
Ice pick headaches can happen at any time, during sleeping or waking hours.
They may also happen multiple times within one day and travel from place to place in the head.

Causes

The underlying cause of ice pick headaches is presently not known but is believed to be linked with fleeting, short-term disruptions within the brain's central pain control mechanisms.

While ice pick headaches were believed to be relatively infrequent, recent research shows that it happens in 2 to 35 percent of the population.

It also happens more often in women beginning at an average age of 28 years old.

Ice pick headaches happen in 2 forms, primary or secondary.

If they are primary, it indicates that they happen without any other apparent cause.

Disorders such as Bell's palsy or shingles (herpes zoster) can cause secondary ice pick headaches.

People with migraine headaches or cluster headaches get ice pick headaches more often than the average person does.

Like ice pick headaches, cluster headaches do not have any specific known triggers.

Persons who get migraines and ice pick headaches may have more luck in determining their triggers.

These can be:
1. Stress
2. Disruptions in sleep pattern or routine
3. Alcohol, particularly red wine
4. Hormonal changes
5. Food additives

Ice pick headaches are identified by several symptoms.

These are:
1. Sudden, stabbing head pain, which normally lasts for 5 to 10 seconds
2. Pain which may be classified as moderately severe to extremely painful
3. Stabs can happen once or many times in waves over several hours
4. Stabs can happen up to 50 times per day
5. Stabs happen without warning
6. Pain is normally felt on the top, front, or sides of the head
7. Stabs may happen in multiple areas of the head, one at a time

Ice pick headaches are occasionally linked with cluster or migraine headaches but they differ from these types.

Their symptoms do not include any autonomic signs such as:
1. Facial flushing
2. Eyelid drooping
3. Tearing

To be able to diagnose this disorder, all the symptoms mentioned above must be present.

First, the doctor must exclude other secondary causes such as:
1. Migraines
2. Cluster headaches
3. Temporal arteritis
4. Intra-cerebral meningioma
5. Autoimmune disorders
7. Bell's palsy
8. Shingles

This can be done through MRI brain or EEG.

The treatment for ice pick headaches is normally not required as they disappear in a matter of seconds, before the patient even reaches for...