Headache - Medtick
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Headache

  • Headaches are caused when the lining round the brain (the meninges) and the blood vessels at the bottom of the brain react to something/anything that they are not used to.
  • Symptoms can last from 30 mins to a  few hours to several days (up to seven days)  and an attack in general can be once or twice a month.

Areas of headache and causes:

  • Back of head – Poor posture
  • Temples – Poor eyesight, allergy, hay fever
  • Forehead– sinuses, allergy, hay fever, ill-fitting bra.
  • Side of head-cluster headache

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  • Throbbing all over– Painkiller medication overuse (associated with taking triptans or opioids for 10 or more days per month, or standard pain killers for 15 or more days per month)

National Headache Management System for Adults. BASH guideline writing committee. 2019.https://www.bash.org.uk/downloads/guidelines2019/01_BASHNationalHeadache_Management_SystemforAdults_2019_guideline_versi.pdf (accessed Dec 2021).

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  • Top of head– Exercise, laughing too hard, too much sleep, too little sleep, sexual excitement.
  • A dull ache in the head and neck that become stronger as sexual excitement increases
  • Sudden, severe, throbbing headache that occurs just before or at the moment of orgasm

When to have a head scan?

Neuroimaging is indicated for any of these characteristics:

  • First or worst severe headache
  • Change in the pattern of previous migraine
  • Abnormal neurologic examination (eg, confusion, stiff neck, papilledema)
  • Onset of migraine after age 50 years
  • New onset of headache in an immunocompromised patient (eg, one with cancer or HIV infection)
  • Headache with fever
  • Migraine and epilepsy
  • New daily, persistent headache
  • Escalation of headache frequency/intensity in the absence of medication overuse headache
  • Posteriorly located headaches (especially in children, but also in adults – severe piercing, throbbing or shock-like pain in the upper neck, back of the head or behind the ears)
  • Resistance to treatment

Medscape

Symptoms

Does one have:

  • Head throbbing?
  • Feel a tight band and/or pressing sensation around your head?
  • Mild to moderate pain on both sides of head?
  • Constant pain that builds gradually throughout the day?
  • Feel pressure behind the eyes and/or tightening of neck muscles?
  • Under stress and anxiety or altered sleep patterns or lack of sleep?
  • Poor posture causing tense neck muscles?
  • Exposed to bright sunlight (dehydrated)?
  • Stopped taking or reduced caffeine/alcohol?
  • Has one stopped smoking or reduced smoking?
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