Headaches are a common health problem that most people experience at some time.
Factors that lead to Headache can be:
1: Emotional, such as anxiety, stress, depression
2: Medical, such as migraine or high blood pressure
3: Physical, such as injury
4: Environmental, such as weather
Types of Headache
Frequent or severe headaches can affect a person’s quality of life. Knowing how to recognize the type of headache and its cause can help a person take appropriate action.
There are over 150 types of headaches, but the most common types include:
Tension Type Headache
This is the most common form of headache, affecting three-fourths of the general population. Tension-type headache was previously called muscle contraction headache. It is associated with the muscles of the neck, face, and jaw. They cause mild to moderate pain and come and go over time. They usually have no other symptoms. Tension-type headaches may be episodic or chronic. Episodic attacks usually last for a few hours, though they can last for several days.
Migraine
Migraine is the third most common and the seventh most disabling illness globally. Based on a 2021 survey, it affects almost 16%Trusted Source of the U.S. population.
Migraine headaches are often described as pounding, throbbing pain. They can last from 4 hours to 3 days and usually happen one to four times a month. Along with the pain, people have other symptoms, such as sensitivity to light, noise, or smells; nausea or vomiting; loss of appetite; and upset stomach or belly pain. When a child has a migraine, they may look pale, feel dizzy, and have blurry vision, fever, and an upset stomach. A few number of children's migraines include digestive symptoms, like vomiting, that happen about once a month.
Cluster Headache
These headaches are the most severe. You could have intense burning or piercing pain behind or around one eye. It can be throbbing or constant. The pain can be so bad that most people with cluster headaches can’t sit still and will often pace during an attack. On the side of the pain, the eyelid droops, the eye reddens, the pupil gets smaller, or the eye makes tears. The nostril on that side runs or stuffs up.
They’re called cluster headaches because they tend to happen in groups. You might get them one to three times per day during a cluster period, which may last 2 weeks to 3 months. Each headache attack lasts 15 minutes to 3 hours. They can wake you up from sleep. The headaches may disappear completely (your doctor will call this remission) for months or years, only to come back later. Men are three to four times more likely to get them than women. These headaches usually last between 15 minutes and 3 hours, and they may occur one to eight times per day. Cluster headaches may frequently arise for 4–12 weeks, then disappear. They tend to happen at around the same time each day.
Sinus Headache
With sinus headaches, you feel a deep and constant pain in your cheekbones, forehead, or on the bridge of your nose. They happen when cavities in your head, called sinuses, get inflamed. The pain usually comes along with other sinus symptoms, like a runny nose, fullness in the ears, fever, and a swollen face. A true sinus headache results from a sinus infection, so the gunk that comes out of your nose will be yellow or green, unlike the clear discharge in cluster or migraine headaches.
Thunderclap Headache
These are sudden, severe headaches that people often describe as the worst headache of their lives. They reach maximum intensity in about 30 seconds to a minute and slowly fade within a few hours.
A thunderclap headache is a secondary headache that can indicate a life-threatening condition, such as:
- an aneurysm
- reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome
- meningitis
- pituitary apoplexy
- bleeding in the brain (hemorrhage)
- blood clot in the brain
People who experience these sudden, severe headaches should receive immediate medical care.
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