Headache is a term used to describe aching or pain that occurs in one or more areas of the head, face, mouth, or neck. Headache can be chronic, recurrent, or occasional. The pain can be mild or severe enough to disrupt daily activities. Headache involves the network of nerve fibers in the tissues, muscles, and blood vessels located in the head and at the base of the skull
There are many different types of headaches, and the most common are tension (muscle contraction) headaches, migraines and cluster-type, accounting for almost 90%. Regardless of the type of headache, effective treatment starts with the identification of factors that are unique to each patient and a clear diagnosis.
At the
What are the Most Common Headache Types?
Most commonly, a person suffering from headaches will have either the tension headache, migraine headache or cluster-type. However, the distinction between these headache types is not as simple as it would seem. In fact, some experts believe that there is no real distinction between these headache types but, rather, they all share a common underlying cause that has several different contributing factors.
Tension Headache
Tension type headaches is the most common type of headache and as many as 30% to 78% of the general population experience at some time during their lifetime. Studies further suggest that there is a biological mechanism underlying these types of headaches. Symptoms can be felt anywhere in the head, but the temples and forehead are the most frequent areas. They are also associated with tightness in the head or scalp. They are not typically associated with other symptoms such as nausea, numbness or visual sensations but can be worsened by emotional stress.
Migraine Headache
Migraine headaches are less common than tension-type headaches. Nevertheless, migraines afflict about 28 million people in the
Migraine is described as a recurrent headache lasting 4-72 hours and often has unilateral pulsating pain, moderate to severe intensity pain, nausea and/or photophobia. The pain of migraine can be aggravated by routine physical activity.
About one in five migraine sufferers experiences an aura prior to onset of a migraine headache. Auras are neurologic symptoms that may occur before during and after a migraine. There are many different types of either visual or other sensory auras and they may differ between attacks
Cluster Type Headache
Cluster headaches occur in about 1% of the population and are distinct from migraine and tension-type headaches on several levels. Most of the cluster headache sufferers are men with onset between ages of 20-40 (where most migraineurs are women with onset following the start of menstruation).
· These attacks are characterized by severe, unilateral pain that is around the eye or along the side of the head.
· Headache attacks last from 15 to 180 minutes and occur once every other day to up to 8 times daily.
· Attacks are associated with tearing on the same side of the head that the pain is located. Patients may also experience nasal congestion, runny nose, forehead and facial sweating, dropping eyelids or eyelid swelling.
· During an attack, patients may be restless or agitated due to excruciating pain
There are other, less common, types of headache that must be considered for a proper diagnosis of the headache disorder to be made. Some of the more important ones are:
Temporal arteritis headaches are caused by inflammation of an artery and occcur on the side of the head.
Sinus headaches are caused by sinus infection.
In addition, more potentially serious causes of pain in the head must be taken into consideration.
What Are the Factors that Contribute to Headache?
Headaches can arise from many different causes. They are typically referred to as primary and secondary factors. Primary being trauma, vascular, infection, muscular, organic, neurological and spinal joint or TMJ dysfunction. Secondary causes are environmental, emotional, and hormonal.