Thunderclap Headache - Causes

Causes

Thunderclap headaches can be caused by a number of different primary conditions including:

• Subarachnoid hemorrhage (10-25% of all cases of thunderclap headache)
• Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis
• Cervical artery dissection
• Hypertensive emergency (severely raised blood pressure)
• Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (low pressure on the cerebrospinal fluid without an explanation)
• Stroke (headache occurs in about 25% of strokes but usually not thunderclap character)
• Retroclival hematoma (hematoma behind the clivus in the skull, usually due to physical trauma but sometimes spontaneous)
• Pituitary apoplexy (infaction or hemorrhage of the pituitary gland)
• Colloid cyst of the third ventricle
• Meningitis (rarely features thunderclap headache)
• Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (previously Call-Fleming syndrome, several subtypes)
• Primary cough headache, primary exertional headache and primary sexual headache
• Primary thunderclap headache