Headache – a common life ailment
Headache is one of the most common ailments that both general practitioners and neurologists encounter on a daily basis. During their lifetime, 70-95 percent of people experience headaches, and only about 5 percent of these people turn to a doctor for help, while the rest consider that a headache is a “normal” phenomenon, and that it is not necessary to consult a doctor.
Who has a headache most often?
Headache occurs most often in people between the ages of 20 and 40, and then the frequency decreases with age. According to the international classification, there are more than 200 types of headaches. It can be primary, when it is a disease on its own, such as migraine, tension and cluster headaches, and secondary – when it is an accompanying symptom of other diseases.
What causes headaches?
Headaches can be caused by serious neurological diseases when they require urgent diagnosis and treatment, which is a smaller number compared to other headaches that are unpleasant for the patient and make daily functioning difficult, but are not life-threatening.
Diagnosing and treating headaches
In the following cases, patients should consult a doctor for examination, diagnosis and treatment: a sudden, very severe headache, a headache with different characteristics than before, one that lasts longer than 72 hours, when it occurs after a head injury, when there are neurological symptoms (weakness of the hands and legs, disturbances in walking, speech, loss of consciousness), when it is accompanied by a higher body temperature, vomiting, neck pain, in the presence of malignant diseases, new headache in people over 50 years old.
Which examinations will be performed on the patient is determined after the anamnesis and neurological examination, and some of them are: laboratory examination of blood and cerebrospinal fluid, electroencephalography (EEG), neuroradiological imaging, examinations by an ophthalmologist, an infectious disease specialist, and an otorhinolaryngologist.
After diagnosing the type of headache, its treatment is carried out. Primary ones can be treated by introducing preventive therapy that prevents the occurrence of headaches, if the criteria for this are met, or by taking analgesics during an attack. In secondary headaches, the cause is treated.
Dr. Juliana Filipov
Spec. neurologist