Recurring headache may be the most
common reason for seeking medical care. Headaches account for about
10 million visits to physicians' offices each yearnot counting
visits to nonphysicians,
chiropractors, hypnotists, or other health care providers who offer headache relief. But
as common as the condition is, it is still in many respects a mystery. Researchers aren't
exactly sure what causes headaches or which people are more susceptible, though they
believe a biological predisposition may be responsible and that overuse of pain-relievers
and caffeine can make them worse. Likewise, doctors can't always tell what kind of
headache an individual has and therefore what kind of medicine would be best.
You've probably heard headaches described in various ways;
terms often used include tension headache, muscle contraction headache, stress headache,
daily chronic headache, migraine headache, and cluster headache. Specialists also deal
with posttraumatic headache and disease-related headache.
Type of Headaches
In 1988, the International Headache Society (IHS) developed
the criteria most often used to differentiate these headaches from one another. Physicians
from around the world took two years to outline a classification system. It is based on
clinical features of the headache, including:
- Number of attacks per month
- Length of time per attack
- Pain characteristics
- Accompanying symptoms
With such an elaborate system, it seems that diagnosing
your headache would be easy. Not so! The reason it's sometimes hard for a health care
provider to diagnose the type of headache you have is that different kinds often have
similar symptoms. Even the Headache Society admits that its criteria have substantial
diagnostic overlap.
Cluster headache, posttraumatic headache, and
disease-related headache are not as confusing as the others, because they have more
distinct characteristics. Diagnosis is often more difficult, when it comes to tension
headache (which is the same as muscle contraction and stress headache), daily chronic
headache, and migraine.
Next:
Type of Headaches
-Migraines
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