Headache is one of the most common clinical symptoms, and about 10% – 20% of the patients who come to the neurology clinic every day come because of headache. However, there are many types of headaches, how can you distinguish which type of headache you have through clinical symptoms? And although headaches are common, they should not be taken lightly. There are seven types of headache symptoms that require vigilance and prompt medical examination.
Headache refers to pain confined to the upper part of the skull, including the arch of the eyebrow, the upper edge of the ear wheel and the area above the line of the external occipital ridge. There are many causes of headache and the prognosis varies, and severe cases can lead to death.
Common types of headache.
Headaches have many causes and often come from different diseases. For example, hypertensive headache, headache caused by upper whistle infection, sinusitis headache, head and neck trauma headache, cervical vascular headache, drug-induced headache, headache caused by encephalitis, menstruation-related headache, neurological headache, brain hemorrhage, brain tumor and headache caused by mental factors.
1.Primary headache
It is the most common type of headache, including migraine, tension-type headache, cluster pain, trigeminal autonomic pain, and other primary pain. The most common primary headache is migraine, which is more frequent in women, often starts in adolescence, and is mostly recurrent throbbing headache on one or both sides of the temporal region.
2.Medical disease-related migraine
It mainly includes headache caused by hypertension and headache caused by cold. Hypertension-related headache mostly manifests as heavy pressure, intermittent dull pain, swelling pain and pulsating sensation, and sometimes it is continuous pain, but the degree of headache is mostly not intense, often accompanied by dizziness, blurred vision, tinnitus, insomnia, forgetfulness and other symptoms. The degree of pain is related to the fluctuation of blood pressure, and the higher the blood pressure, the worse the degree.
3.Headache related to neurological diseases
Such as increased intracranial pressure, epileptic pain, trigeminal neuralgia, temporal arteritis headache, etc.
4.Headache related to mental factors
It is manifested as pressure or dull pain sensation in the head, more typically with a feeling of fasciculation. It is mostly related to stress in daily life, such as long-term mental tension, fatigue, anxiety, noisy environment in which you live, strong light stimulation, etc.
Seek prompt medical attention for the following symptoms.
Headache is only a clinical symptom, while the diseases associated with it can be severe or mild. The mild ones can be relieved by rest and psychological guidance, while the severe ones need timely medical consultation, otherwise it will lead to serious consequences. What are the headache emergencies that need attention in life? The following symptoms should not be taken lightly and should be seen promptly.
1. Sudden headache with prodromal symptoms of whistling and digestive tract infection. The onset of fever and rash should alert to intracranial infection.
2.Headache with concomitant symptoms or signs of neurological deficits such as hemiplegia, aphasia and sensory impairment should be alerted to cerebrovascular disease.
3.History of hypertension, starting under exercise or emotional excitement, headache with pulsating dull pain, tension in the head, accompanied by dizziness, and the headache will be aggravated by the movement of head in low position such as lowering the head, should be alert to hypertensive encephalopathy, which is prone to cerebrovascular disease and other events if not seen in time.
4.Recurrent persistent headache, which cannot be improved by taking painkillers, is often accompanied by blurred vision, unstable walking, and even nausea and vomiting and other symptoms of increased intracranial pressure. In this case, you should go to the neurology department in time to be alert to the possibility of meningioma and other intracranial tumors.
5, patients with a history of rhinitis, sinusitis headache, if the degree is more intense than before, last longer, and the effect of the previous relief methods is not obvious, should be alert to rhinitis, sinusitis caused by congestion and swelling in the nose, sinus opening obstruction, poor ventilation and drainage caused by obstructive headache, or even due to negative pressure absorption of air in the sinus caused by vacuum headache.
6. Headache after urination is one of the typical manifestations of pheochromocytoma of the bladder. Pheochromocytoma of the bladder can lead to hypertension, hematuria and diabetes. When the bladder is full, the patient will have paroxysmal hypertension, manifested as headache, rapid pulse, sweating, pallor and other symptoms, which will reach a peak during urination and even fainting. Therefore, headache after urination should be promptly seen by the urology department.
7.After long-term mental tension, fatigue, anxiety, environmental noise, strong light stimulation, etc., or encountering stressful events, bilateral pain in the head with a feeling of pressure and heavy tightness, like wearing a tight band, often accompanied by insomnia, inattention, memory loss, irritability, etc., not accompanied by nausea and vomiting. There is no positive sign in the neurological physical examination and no meaningful positive result in the auxiliary examination. At this time, it is necessary to be alert to psychogenic headache. To relieve psychogenic headache, we should not rely too much on painkillers, but should mainly start from eliminating excessive mental anxiety and tension.
To sum up, patients should be alert to sudden attacks of headache, changes in the nature of pain, waking up at night with pain, or headache with accompanying symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, seizure, or disorders of consciousness, etc., and seek medical attention in time to avoid irreversible and serious consequences.
Prevention of headache starts from daily practice
1.The most basic thing to prevent headache is to correctly understand the disease, actively cooperate with the treatment and eliminate the bad self-reference.
2.Secondly, patients with underlying diseases should pay attention to the prevention of risk factors, such as hypertension patients actively lowering blood pressure and dyslipidemia patients regulating lipid treatment.
3, in addition to these preventive measures, usually also pay attention to the cessation of bad habits, standardize the diet structure. Adequate rest and good sleep is one of the positive preventive measures, do not keep a sleeping position for a long time when resting, protect the cervical spine, so that the neck has a comfortable support.
4, weekdays can be self-massage, you can use the fingertips in the head from front to back gently massage, or use the comb for head from front to back gently massage, or use the comb for head massage.