You would think that diagnosing a headache would be one of the easiest things in the world as almost all adults suffer from them and when you get one then you certainly know about it. But, in spite of the obvious pain, diagnosing a headache can be a little more difficult than you might think.
Surprisingly there are no general tests for use in diagnosing a headache and if you believe you have a headache and are experiencing pain then all you can do is to tell your physician how you feel and he has to produce a diagnosis on the basis of what you say. One major problem however is that when it comes to talking about symptoms descriptions can vary markedly.
Some people are not as eloquent as others when it comes to talking about how they feel and our frequently limited vocabulary does not always help us either. Talking about having a 'sharp pain' might seem like a very expressive description to you but it may not necessarily be very helpful to your physician.
As if this was not bad enough diagnosing a headache is made more difficult by the fact that headaches come in a variety of different types.
Simple tension headaches which are caused by inflamed neck or facial muscles and constricted head blood vessels amongst other things do not usually get diagnosed professionally as the majority of people merely treat them with analgesics or just wait until they disappear.
On the other hand, migraines are more painful and are much more likely to result in a visit to your physician although even with migraines approximately half of sufferers never ask for professional help.
Physicians are able to make use of a number of factors to diagnose a particular form of headache and recommend a suitable treatment and, in spite of the fact that the pain felt is subjective, the form of pain is an indication of the type of headache. Migraines, for example, as a rule produce intense throbbing or pulsating sensations whereas in tension headaches pain is generally more diffuse and constant.
Migraine headaches are also usually accompanied by nausea and vomiting as well as by a sensitivity to sound and light, cold extremities and a number of other signs which sufferers recognize. And, as these symptoms are more or less the same from one person to the next, physicians have an objective set of symptoms on which they are able to form a proper diagnosis.
Cluster headaches are characterized by a concentrated pain behind the eye or temple which occurs for generally half an hour to an hour and then returns the next day at roughly the same time. Cluster headaches can last for several weeks and, once again because they are quite regular, physicians have something on which to base a diagnosis.
In cases where headaches are the effect of a serious underlying condition such as a brain tumor, physicians are able to diagnose this without too much difficulty. For example, CT or MRI scans can reveal well known brain patterns which can link a headache to the underlying physical problem.
Headaches which slowly worsen over time also provide physicians with a clue, as do patterns of pain which shift rapidly, and this may for example indicate an aneurysm (a weakening of a blood vessel) as the root cause.
Diagnosing a headache is complex because of many different forms of headache and the vast range of symptoms. Nevertheless the key in all cases is to gather together as much information as possible both from the patient and clinical testing.
Article Source: http://www.orbitaloc.com/
TheMigraineHeadacheCenter.com provides specific information about migrane headaches and other related topics such as what causes a headache from red wine
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