Headaches

The head is one of the most common sites of pain in the body. We have all suffered from some kind of headache. Headaches or head pain sometimes can be difficult to describe, but some common symptoms include throbbing, squeezing, constant, unrelenting, or intermittent pain. The location may be in one part of the face or skull, or may be generalized, involving the whole head.

Headaches may arise spontaneously or may be associated with activity or exercise. It may have an acute onset, that is, it may just start up suddenly, or it may be chronic in nature, with or without episodes of increasing severity.

Headaches are often associated with nausea and vomiting and overall bad feeling. This is especially true with migraine headaches.

Head pain can be classified as being one of three types: primary headache, secondary headache, and cranial neuralgias, facial pain, and other headaches.

Common primary headaches include tension, migraine and cluster headaches. Home remedies can be used for tension headaches, the most common type of primary headache. These include rest and over-the-counter (OTC) medications for pain, such as those that are readily available.

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. To treat secondary headache, you have to treat the cause of the problem and then the headache will go away.

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 medication is taken and then recur. (The term “rebound headache” has been replaced by the term “medication overuse headache”).

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 behaviour. This type of headache may be caused by the development of serious infections.

Dr Rosmond Adams, MD is a medical doctor and a public health specialist with training in bioethics and ethical issues in medicine, the life sciences and research. He is the head of Health Information, Communicable Disease and Emergency Response at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). He is also a member of the World Health Organization Global Coordination Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of NCDs.

(The views expressed here are not written on behalf of CARPHA nor the WHO).

You may contact him at adamsrosmond@gmail.com