If you’ve never experienced a hangover headache, a group of Spanish researchers can tell you what it feels like. They set out to evaluate and characterize what the international headache classification calls the “delayed alcohol-induced headache”. Also known as a hangover headache. The results of their investigation were published in the leading neurology journal, Neurology.
They studied a group with a lot of experience in this area – university students. The students made a personal sacrifice for the sake of science and voluntarily consumed alcohol and experienced headache.
A total of 1,108 (!) participants were included (58% female, mean age 23 years, 41% with headache history). The mean alcohol intake was 158 grams. Spirits were consumed by 60% of the participants; beer was consumed by 41%, and wine was consumed by 18%.
The mean headache duration was 7 hours. The duration correlated with the total grams of alcohol consumed. The pain was bilateral in 85% of patients and predominantly frontal in location (43%). The pain was mostly moderate in intensity with pressing (60%) or pulsatile (39%) quality. It was aggravated by physical activity in 83% of participants. Criteria for a migraine diagnosis were fulfilled by 36%.
One interesting finding of the study is that 58% of students had a headache that was typical of one seen with low cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure. This raises the question of whether alcohol can indeed cause low CSF pressure.
It is an interesting question but I am not sure if further studies are warranted. It is probably better to spend the money on trying to reduce alcohol consumption.
