Common Headache Types

Migraine

It's important to understand that migraine is not "just a bad headache." Migraine is a chronic, recurrent, and often debilitating medical condition² that requires proper diagnosis and treatment. Migraine attacks:

• Are characterized by throbbing pain, ranging from moderate to severe, usually felt on one side of the head³
• Last at least four hours, and can last up to 72 hours³
• Affect three times more women than men⁴
• Disrupt family time and cause sufferers to cancel leisure activities⁵

In addition:²

• About two thirds of migraineurs experience a "prodrome," or pre-headache phase, a few hours or days before the full onset of an attack.²
  • Symptoms include fatigue, drowsiness, mood change, food cravings, thirst and extreme sensitivity to light, sound and even certain odors.²
• About 20 percent of migraineurs experience the next phase-the "aura"-which consists of temporary neurologic disturbances, including blind spots, flashing spots or streams of light, tingling, or weakness in the face and hands and difficulty concentrating.² These symptoms occur 10 to 60 minutes before an attack, but are not always followed by the onset of headache pain.²
• With the headache comes one or more other symptoms-nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, heightened sensitivity to light and sound, blurred vision, tenderness of the face and scalp and difficulty concentrating.²·
• As the headache diminishes, about half of migraineurs experience a "postdrome" phase, in which symptoms of fatigue, drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, facial tenderness or a feeling of general discomfort may remain for one to two days.²

Therefore, once an attack occurs, an employee may be unproductive or absent from work for up to several days.² Employees with migraine are also likely to experience "presenteeism," in which they're physically at work, but unable to function.⁸

Tension-type

Most people have experienced a headache that surfaces in the forehead, temples, or the back of the head and neck. This is commonly called a "tension-type" headache. Generally, these headaches occur randomly and are often the result of temporary stress, anxiety, fatigue or anger.⁵

Symptoms include:
· Soreness in the temples⁵
· A tightening band-like sensation around the head (a "vise-like" ache)⁵
· A pulling feeling⁵
· Pressure sensations⁵
· Contracting head and neck muscles⁵

Unlike migraine, tension-type headaches are not usually associated with nausea or vomiting, and are not affected by physical activity.⁵ In most cases, these headaches can be effectively treated with non-prescription medications, exercise, or just a good night's sleep.⁵

Sometimes, the headache may occur just about every day for long periods of time. When this happens, healthcare professionals call it "chronic tension-type" headache.⁵These headaches are more difficult to treat and may require medical attention.⁵

Cluster

Cluster headaches got their name because the attacks come in groups.⁵ Although rare (it is estimated that less than one percent of the population are victims of cluster headaches)⁵, the pain has been described as the most severe and intense of any headache type and arrives with little, if any, warning. Most sufferers have one to four headaches a day during a cluster period, and they experience the headache somewhere between the ages of 20 and 45.⁵ More men (about five to one) than women suffer from cluster headaches.⁵

Attacks generally last from 30 to 45 minutes to several hours, and sometimes reoccur later in the day.⁵ Other characteristics of cluster headache pain include:²

• Located on one side of the head
• Beginning around one eye, "like a nail or knife stabbing or piercing" your eye, or as if someone "were pulling out" your eye.⁵
• Accompanied by a tearing or bloodshot eye and a runny nose on the side of the headache.⁵
• Moving from the eye to the forehead, temple, and cheek on the same side.⁵
• Described as piercing, burning, throbbing, pulsating, and so excruciating that most victims cannot sit still and feel compelled to rock in a chair, walk back and forth, or bang their heads against something.⁵

For more information on headache types, including various treatment strategies, click here to visit the National Headache Foundation (NHF) Web site, www.headaches.org.

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