"Electric Shock" type pain in my scalp!

Well I have had some medical issues myself.. Nothing compares to my daughter's stuff but I am trying to get better myself so I can take care of her..

My daughter is still dealing with it but something that helps is medical marijuana.. She uses the oil and has helped with that and her spasms... I hope you get relief soon

Years ago I used to have a horrid electric shock itch/tingle of my right shoulder. Unbearable. For past few years I get a pain in my scalp like electric shock/tingle, it hurts. It also hurts to swallow and the pain seems to travel from my throat when swallowing, to my ear and into my scalp. Most recently, I’m getting this with that horrendous itch near my shoulder and if I scratch it makes it much worse

@loulou123 - welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You'll notice I moved your post here to an existing discussion, "Electric Shock type pain in my scalp." If you click on VIEW & REPLY in your email notification, you will see the whole discussion and can join in, meet, and participate with other members talking about their or their loved ones' experiences.

That does sound very difficult to have electric shock-type sensations in your shoulder and now your scalp, in addition to the pain with swallowing and the horrendous itch near your shoulder.

It sounds like the electric shock itch/tingle of your right shoulder finally went away? If so, was there a treatment you were given for this, or what do you think made this sensation go away?

@loulou123 Has anyone examined your spine for possible issues? Electric shock pains are usually nerve compressions. If you have any disc or alignment problems in your neck, or possibly arthritis, it could produce symptoms like this. I had a spine problem in my neck and have had spine surgery. Before my surgery, I had itching and pain around my scapulae, pain in my ears, and muscle spasm headaches onto the back of my head from my spine problems. You might want to consult a neurologist and have a physical therapy evaluation with a PT who is familiar with rehabbing spine surgery patients. Nerves pass through some very small spaces in the body between muscles, around joints and bones, and misalignment can compress these spaces.

I would also agree with @jennifer in that spinal compression can cause issues like you have. I occasionally get burning sensations in my left arm and the X-Rays of my neck show a compression of the discs (due to poor posture) where the nerve for my arm originates. I am entering physical therapy to straighten our this condition and hope that this will resolve these sensations. You should do the same just to rule out this potential source of pain.

Also, I notice that if I sleep on a hard pillow for most of the night I can get soreness (not electrical shock) of the skin in this area. Possibly you are irritating some nerves in that area if it is surface related (i.e., not internal to the skull).

Hello! I have no idea if you are still on this Mayo Clinic group but I too get those top of head "zingers" and they are SO painful! Wish I could talk to you more about it. I have some theories. I HATE to test it out because it's painful! But I have a quess that (for me) it MAY be linked to horrible preservatives and additives in some foods and diet sodas. SO I stopped drinking diet coke etc and TRY not to eat process foods but additives and preservatives are in a bunch of foods in restaurants and at the store .. NOT sure i that's the cause but its a guess. Again I hate to eat and drink those things and test it out.. bc if that's it it will be a day and night of those scalp "zaps"! If you have any ideas to share, let me know!

Hi @sooz50 and welcome to Connect. That sounds awful dealing with that pain for so long.

I wanted to introduce you to fellow Connect members @bkruppa @jenniferhunter and @danibec31 as they have experience or knowledge of this condition and may be able to offer you support.

How long have you been experiencing this?

Good evening, I thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue.

I have the exact same symptom of electric shock zap on the right side of my scalp. The actual spot is behind my left ear and I can feel my nerve when I touch it.

The pain is described as electric shock (I have been electrocuted a few times in my life) and always occurs after I have a fever.
The pain is excruciating as there is no fixed pattern or no fixed timeline of when the pain will occur, sometimes, once every 10 seconds, sometimes, once every minute. It starts to give a psychological damage as it drives me crazy of not knowing when the zap will occur.
The pain can be lessened by compressing the area with my hand.
In my case, the electric shock is always accompanied by a low fever.

I've been experimenting on methods to get the symptom to stop, and do feel that the pain stops as soon as the fever is gone, either by temporal tylenol or by taking Ibuprofen.

I've been given cafergot (migraine treatment) and magnesium + vitamin B and both also helps to alleviate the pain.

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As I have rad all of the replies give in this thread, I'd like to summarize a few illness which maybe the cause of the electric shock other people were having.

Below are what was shared by the people here, I would suggest everyone who had the "electric shock type of pain on scalp" to check out these keywords to see which suited your pain best:

Occipital neuralgia

trigeminal neuralgia - most described this as face pain, but worth checking

shingles

Ice Pick Headaches

peripheral neuropathy

“Scalp folliculitis”

Allodynia

postherpetic neuralgia

"Years ago my wife had similar shock like feelings in her scalp. They would last for just a short periods of time. Most doctors diagnosed this to be a mental condition. Fortunately after three months of doctoring a nutritionist diagnosed this as hypoglycemia which is a drastic swing in sugar levels in the body. Apparently this causes other organs to react abnormally and to release chemicals into the blood stream that caused the shock like feelings in the scalp. I'm not saying that your condition is a result of hypoglycemia but it may be due to a similar chemical reaction that is causing your symptoms. What my wife went through was very scary but fortunately the cure was simple………a proper diet. "

"Has anyone examined your spine for possible issues? Electric shock pains are usually nerve compressions. If you have any disc or alignment problems in your neck, or possibly arthritis, it could produce symptoms like this. I had a spine problem in my neck and have had spine surgery. Before my surgery, I had itching and pain around my scapulae, pain in my ears, and muscle spasm headaches onto the back of my head from my spine problems. You might want to consult a neurologist and have a physical therapy evaluation with a PT who is familiar with rehabbing spine surgery patients. Nerves pass through some very small spaces in the body between muscles, around joints and bones, and misalignment can compress these spaces."

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As we age, being healthy is a blessing. Do keep a good diet and exercise.

@sooz50 The artificial sweeteners in diet soda are somewhat toxic to the body, and I gave them up because it made my face tingle and I didn't feel good afterward. It's easy to do an elimination diet and figure out what your body doesn't tolerate. It just takes time. Sugar increases inflammation, and I use stevia as a sweetner which is a natural extract that does not increase blood sugar levels and it isn't a foreign chemical. I have a lot of food allergies, and allergies cause inflammation which can increase irritation of a nerve if there is already inflammation causing it. The wrong foods also cause a lot of inflammation that contributes to disease over time. The foods that don't promote inflammation are what doctors recommend for good health. Diseases or infections that cause inflammation also add to body wide inflammation that affects everything.

Misalignment of the skull, jaw and spine can cause pain. I can get a muscle spasm that rotates a cervical vertebra independently which then stretches the muscles attached to the spinous process (at the opposite side) of that vertebra which causes the muscle spasm to go up onto the back or side of my head. If my jaw is too tight on one side (because of a neck spasm), it causes the trigeminal nerve to tingle on my face. I don't have any compression of the nerve roots where they exit the spine, but if someone had that, it's another place to put pressure on the nerve that can be set off by a neck spasm. It's so easy to do that by sleeping in an awkward position. I do physical therapy and stretching to ease the tightness in my neck to maintain proper alignment. These issues were a lot more severe before I had surgery for cervical stenosis for a compressed spinal cord, and I had (and still have) thoracic outlet syndrome that causes tightness in my neck and chest that is worse on one side. That sets the stage to rotate a vertebra if it gets kicked up from something I've done like sleeping wrong, or overexerting myself when lifting something because it kicks on neck muscles to help when the shoulders are fatiguing. Since my spine surgery, everything has calmed down, and I continue to work on the TOS.

The body is designed for good ergonomics, and bad posture causes a lot of problems. Sitting at a computer, slumped forward with your neck outstretched toward the screen is one of the worst things you can do since it puts pressure on the occiput at the back of your skull. The shoulders round forward and compress the nerves and vessels that supply the arms which is a cause of TOS. Over time, the body gets stuck in an unnatural position and the fascia tightens and prevents good posture. That's a lesson I had to learn myself. What helps me the most for posture is increasing core strength in my spine because it supports everything. If my lower back isn't doing it's job well, I can't expect my neck to function well either. The spaces where nerves pass through the body are small and go around a lot of joints and curves, in-between muscle bundles, and get stretched when you move. For me, the best exercise is horseback riding (at a walk) with good posture because it builds the core strength when I have to compensate for every step he takes. That has built strength more than my physical therapy for my spine, but the physical therapy has been better at targeting the shoulder muscles around the scapulae that need to hold the shoulders back and prevent the forward slouch.

You may want to visit a physical therapist who does myofascial release and cranial work. MFR can free the irritated nerves and get the bones back in alignment where they belong. Here is a discussion on MFR with a lot of information.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
These links can explain some of the issues with alignment of the skull as it sits on the spine.
https://mskneurology.com/treating-migraine-headaches-addressing-atlas-thoracic-outlet/
https://mskneurology.com/true-cause-solution-temporomandibular-dysfunction-tmd/