Headache

What is the medical definition of headache?

• Headache or head pain sometimes can be difficult to describe, but some common symptoms include throbbing, squeezing, constant, unrelenting, or intermittent. The location may be in one part of the face or skull or may be generalized involving the whole head.
• The head is one of the most common sites of pain in the body.
• Headache may arise spontaneously or may be associated with activity or exercise. It may have an acute onset or it may be chronic in nature with or without episodes of increasing severity.
• Headache is often associated with nausea and vomiting. This is especially true with migraine headaches.

What are the different types of headaches?

• Head pain can be classified as being one of three types: 1) primary headache, 2) secondary headache, and 3) cranial neuralgias, facial pain, and other headaches.
• Common primary headaches include tension, migraine, and cluster headaches.
• Medication overuse headache (rebound headache) is a condition where frequent use of pain medications can lead to persistent head pain. The headache may improve for a short time after the medication is taken and then recur. (The term "rebound headache" has been replaced by the term "medication overuse headache.")

How do I relieve a headache?

• Home remedies for tension headaches, the most common type of primary headache, include rest and over-the-counter (OTC) medications for pain.

What could headaches be a sign of?

• Secondary headaches are usually a symptom of an injury or an underlying illness. For example, sinus headaches are considered a secondary headache due to increased pressure or infection in the sinuses.
• Individuals should seek medical care for new-onset headaches or if headaches are associated with fever, stiff neck, weakness, change in sensation on one side of the body, change in vision, vomiting, or change in behavior that may be caused by the development of serious infections.

What is a headache?

The headache pain may be a dull ache, sharp, throbbing, constant, intermittent, mild, or intense.

Headache is defined as pain arising from the head or upper neck of the body. The pain originates from the tissues and structures that surround the skull or the brain because the brain itself has no nerves that give rise to the sensation of pain (pain fibers). The thin layer of tissue (periosteum) that surrounds bones, muscles that encase the skull, sinuses, eyes, and ears, as well as thin tissues that cover the surface of the brain and spinal cord (meninges), arteries, veins, and nerves, all can become inflamed or irritated and cause a headache. The pain may be a dull ache, sharp, throbbing, constant, intermittent, mild, or intense.

How are headaches classified?

In 2013, the International Headache Society released its latest classification system for headache. Because so many people suffer from headaches, and because treatment is difficult sometimes, the Headache Society hoped that the new classification system would help health care professionals make a more specific diagnosis as to the type of headache a patient has, and allow better and more effective options for treatment.

The guidelines are extensive, and the Headache Society recommends that health care professionals consult the guidelines frequently to make certain of the diagnosis.

There are three major categories of headache based upon the source of the pain.

1. Primary headaches
2. Secondary headaches
3. Cranial neuralgias, facial pain, and other headaches

The guidelines also note that a patient may have symptoms that are consistent with more than one type of headache, and that more than one type of headache may be present at the same time.

What are primary headaches?

Migraine headaches are the second most common type of primary headache.

Primary headaches include migraine, tension, and cluster headaches, as well as a variety of other less common types of headaches.

• Tension headaches are the most common type of primary headache. Tension headaches occur more commonly among women than men. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 20 people in the developed world suffer with a daily tension headache.
• Migraine headaches are the second most common type of primary headache. Migraine headaches affect children as well as adults. Before puberty, boys and girls are affected equally by migraine headaches, but after puberty, more women than men are affected.
• Cluster headaches are a rare type of primary headache. It more commonly affects men in their late 20s, though women and children can also suffer from this type of headache.

Primary headaches can affect the quality of life. Some people have occasional headaches that resolve quickly while others are debilitating. While these headaches are not life-threatening, they may be associated with symptoms that can mimic strokes.

Many patients equate severe headache with migraine, but the amount of pain does not determine the diagnosis of migraine. Read our Migraine Headache article for more information about the symptoms, causes, and treatment of migraines.