Search:

Home | Health & Fitness | Child Health


It Is Not Quite As Simple As You Think To Diagnose Headaches

By: Donald Saunders

Diagnosing a headache should be the simplest thing in the world as almost every adult suffers from them and when you develop one then you indeed know about it. However, in spite of the noticeable pain, diagnosing a headache can be a little more difficult than you might think.

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

Some people simply are not as articulate as others when it comes to describing what they feel and our often limited vocabulary does not always help very much. Saying that you have a 'stabbing pain' might seem to be a very expressive description to you but it may not necessarily be very helpful to your physician.

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

Tension headaches which are produced by inflamed neck or facial muscles and dilated head blood vessels amongst other things do not normally get diagnosed by physicians because the majority of people simply treat them with analgesics or just wait until they fade.

Migraines, on the other hand, are far worse and are more likely to occasion a visit to the physician although even here about fifty percent of sufferers do not ask for professional help.

Physicians can use a variety of factors to diagnose a particular type of headache and recommend an appropriate treatment and, in spite of the fact that the pain is subjective, the type of pain is an indication of the type of headache. For example, migraines generally produce powerful throbbing or pulsating sensations while in ordinary tension headaches the pain is usually more diffuse and constant.

Migraine headaches are also generally accompanied by nausea as well as by sensitivity to sound and light, cold extremities and various other signs that sufferers will recognize. And, because these symptoms are roughly the same from one patient to the next, physicians have an objective group of symptoms on which they can form a sound diagnosis.

Cluster headaches are distinguished by a powerful pain behind the eye or temple that lasts for about half an hour to one hour and then returns the next day at about the same time. Cluster headaches can go on for several weeks and, once again because they are quite regular, physicians have something to go o when making their diagnosis.

In those instances where headaches are the effect of a serious underlying condition like a brain tumor, physicians can diagnose this without undue difficulty. For example, CT or MRI scans can be used to look for well known patterns that can link a headache to the underlying physical problem.

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

Diagnosing a headache is complex as a result of many different types of headache and the vast range of symptoms. But the key in all cases is to gather as much information as is possible from both the sufferer and clinical testing.

Article Source: http://www.articlemanual.com

TheMigraineHeadacheCenter.com provides specific information about migraine headaches and other related topics such as morning headaches



Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Child Health Articles Via RSS!
Additional Articles From - Home | Health & Fitness | Child Health
More Articles
Sign Up for a free account or learn more.
Submit Articles
Member Login
Top Authors
Most Popular Articles
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
Article Marketing Sites
News Desk
About Us
Link to Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Must See These
Right Article
Finance Manual
Health Manual
Web Directory

Powered by Article Dashboard