It Is Not As Simple As You Think To Diagnose A Headache - By: Don Saunders

You would think that diagnosing a headache would be one of the easiest things in the world as almost all adults suffer from headaches and when you suffer from one then you definitely know about it. But, in spite of the noticeable pain, diagnosing a headache can be a bit harder than you might suppose.

Astonishingly there are no general tests for use in diagnosing headaches and if you believe you are suffering from a headache and are experiencing pain then all you can do is to tell your physician exactly how you are feeling and it is his job to produce a diagnosis on the basis of what you tell him. However, one significant problem is that when talking about symptoms descriptions can and do vary markedly.

Some people are simply not as clear as others when describing how they feel and our often limited vocabulary does not help very much. Talking about experiencing a 'stabbing pain' might seem like a very good description to you but it does not necessarily be too helpful to your physician.

As if all of this was not bad enough diagnosis is made harder because headaches fall into several different categories.

Simple tension headaches which arise from inflamed facial or neck muscles and dilated head blood vessels amongst other things do not usually get diagnosed by physicians at all as most people simply treat them themselves with painkillers or just wait until they fade.

By contrast, migraines are more painful and are more likely to be the subject of a visit to the physician although even with migraines roughly half of sufferers never ask for professional help.

Physicians are able to use several factors in order to diagnose a particular type of headache and recommend a suitable treatment and, in spite of the fact that the pain felt is subjective, the type of pain is indicative of the type of headache. Migraines, for example, frequently produce powerful pulsating or throbbing sensations while in ordinary tension headaches the pain is generally more diffuse and constant.

Migraine headaches are also normally accompanied by nausea as well as a sensitivity to light and sound, cold extremities and other signs which sufferers will recognize. And, as these symptoms tend to be more or less the same from one sufferer to another, physicians are faced with an objective group of symptoms on which they are able to form a sound diagnosis.

Cluster headaches are distinguished by a strong pain behind an eye or temple which occurs for roughly half an hour to one hour and then re-occur the following day at approximately the same time. Cluster headaches can last for weeks and, again as they are fairly regular, physicians have something to go on.

In those cases where headaches are the result of some serious underlying condition like a brain tumor, physicians are able to identify this without undue difficulty. For example, MRI or CT scans can reveal well known patterns which can link a headache to the underlying physical problem.

A headache which progressively worsens over time provides physicians with a clue, as do patterns of pain which shift rapidly, and this could for example point to an aneurysm (a weakened blood vessel) as the root cause.

Diagnosing headaches is complex as a result of many different types of headache and the variety of symptoms. Nonetheless the key is to gather together as much information as is possible from both the patient and clinical tests.

About the Author

TheMigraineHeadacheCenter.com provides specific information about migraines and other related topics such as what causes headaches in morning

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