Can Animals Have Headaches?

Can animals have headaches?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

The evidence suggests that animals can indeed experience headaches, similar to humans. Behavioral studies and case reports provide compelling evidence of headache-like symptoms in animals. Furthermore, pathophysiological studies in animal models offer valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying headaches, which can help in developing better treatments for both humans and animals.

Headaches are a common ailment in humans, but the question arises: can animals experience headaches too? This article explores the evidence from various research studies to determine whether animals can suffer from headaches and how these conditions are studied and treated.

Evidence from Animal Models

Animal models have been instrumental in understanding the pathophysiology of headaches and identifying novel therapeutic targets. Behavioral and cognitive alterations in animals during pain episodes provide significant insights. For instance, spontaneous behaviors such as increased grooming, freezing, eye blinking, and head shaking are observed during pain episodes in animals. These behaviors are often easy to translate into clinical outcomes, although they provide limited information about the localization and modality of the pain1.

Case Studies in Animals

There are documented cases of animals exhibiting symptoms similar to human headaches. For example, a 5-year-old female Cocker Spaniel dog exhibited paroxysmal vocalization episodes, hypersalivation, frequent swallowing, and photophobia, which are suggestive of migraine attacks. The dog’s symptoms improved significantly with the administration of Topiramate, a medication commonly used to treat migraines in humans. This case suggests that dogs, and potentially other animals, can suffer from migraine or other primary headache disorders2.

Pathophysiological Insights

Recent animal studies have shown that chronic medication exposure can significantly affect the nervous system areas related to headache pathogenesis. These changes include upregulation of calcitonin gene-related peptide, substance P, and nitric oxide synthase in trigeminal ganglia, among others. These findings indicate an increase in the excitability of cortical and trigeminal neurons, which may contribute to the chronification of headaches3.

Can animals have headaches?

Arne May has answered Uncertain

An expert from University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Neurology

We simply have no idea.

There are good reasons to believe that animals (vertebrates) do experience headache since headache (just as pain) is a simple physiological answer to a noxious input. A trauma or infection should be perceived as pain. Can animals have a migraine? We do not know. Some behaviour may be interpreted as such (scratching the head, withdrawing to a dark corner etc.) and it has been claimed that some gorilla in the netherlands showed this behaviour- but we do notand cannot know. Full stop.

BTW: That is exactly why we should (in my opinion) investigate the species that does have this problem: ourselves- humans.

Can animals have headaches?

Antonio Russo has answered Unlikely

An expert from University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Neurology

There is a quite shared agreement among headache experts about the fact that animals don’t experience migraine, retaining that migraine could represent a “particular” effect of the human and cerebral evolution. Nevertheless, in the past, some anecdotic observations have been spread related to primates exhibiting peculiar behaviors resembling those observed in migraine patients (the so called “behavioral sickness”), characterized for instance by lethargy, depressed mood, reduced social exploration, loss of appetite and sleepiness. However, only recently, a dog showing signs and symptoms suggestive of a migraine attack, similar to a migraine attack in humans, has been reported as scientific communication. 

Can animals have headaches?

Fayyaz Ahmed has answered Uncertain

An expert from Hull York Medical School in Neurology

I don’t know but I am sure they do

Can animals have headaches?

Anna Andreou has answered Uncertain

An expert from King’s College London in Neuroscience, Neurology

The fair answer is that we don’t know.  Clinical symptoms of other neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s for example, have been identified in animals. The same neuronal pathways that are present in humans and potentially involved in migraine pathophysiology, are also found in animals with minor differences. Stimulation and activation of those pathways has been used to model at least aspects of headaches pathophysiology in licensed laboratories.

Can animals have headaches?

Amanda Ellison has answered Likely

An expert from Durham University in Psychology, Neuroscience

The pain that comes from headache is due to a widening of blood vessels in the brain. This would surely happen in animals always and so there is the potential that the signals sent to the brain to signify this dilation will be experienced as pain by the animal. As they are in humans. It is an early warning system that our most vital organ is under threat. If the blood vessels of the head over-widen and burst, that will cause bleeding in the brain and blood kills brain tissue. There is every reason to believe that this would happen in animals too and there certainly is some evidence of this at least in dogs.

Can animals have headaches?

Janet Bultitude has answered Likely

An expert from University of Bath in Psychology

I don’t see why not.