Primary yawning headache

Abstract

To describe three patients with recurrent severe paroxysmal headache precipitated by yawning. Pain elicited by yawning is a well-recognized clinical phenomenon in patients with cranial neuralgia, temporomandibular joint dysfunction syndrome and Eagle syndrome. Clinical history, neurological and oral examinations, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cranial nerve electrophysiological testing and skull X-rays are reported. In all the patients pain was induced by yawning; in the third patient pain was also triggered by eructation. None had history of migraine. Facial gestures and forceful opening of the mouth did not reproduce the pain. The first patient had retroauricular pain, simvastatin-induced myopathy and subclinical axonal peripheral neuropathy; the second patient had a post-viral benign sensory neuropathy; and the third had retroauricular and facial pain and no underlying neurological illness. Cranial nerve testing and MRI of the brain were normal except for a coincidentally found pituitary adenoma on the first patient. Headache or cranial pain with yawning may occur in patients with no apparent cause (primary yawning headache). It is a chronic, benign condition that requires no specific treatment but needs to be distinguished from secondary yawning headache, of greater clinical relevance.