WHAT KIND OF HEADACHE DO YOU HAVE?

The common neurovascular headaches are tension-type headaches, migraine headaches, cluster headaches and chronic paroxysmal hemicrania. The following lists describes common descriptors of these headaches but they are not meant to provide a diagnosis.

The following are screening questions for tension-type headache:

Does your headache....

• feel like a continuous ache?
• affect both sides of your head?
• feel like a tight band around your head?

The following are screening questions for migraine headache:

• Are there other members of your extended family who have headaches?
• Do you have visual symptoms such as spots before your eyes before the headache starts?
• Does your headache feel like an intense rhtymic pulsing, throbbing pain?
• Do you feel nauseous or vomit during a headache?
• Do your your eyes become sensitive to light during a headache?
• Do your ears become sensitive to sound during a headache?
• Do you become sensitive to smells during a headache?
• Do you feel like lying down in a dark room during the headache?

The following are screening questions for migraine cluster headache:

• Is the pain so excruciating that you become fidgety and want to pace?
• Does the pain feel like it is a stabbing, hot poking pain around the eye and other parts of the face and head?
• Do you get a droopy and red eye on the painful side?
• Do you get a runny nose?
• Do you sweat on the painful side?
• Do the painful episodes last a few hours at most and then come back?
• Do the painful episodes go away for months or years and then come back?

The following are screening questions for chronic paroxysmal hemicrania:

• Is the pain intense and stabbing around the eye?
• Is the pain provoked by turning your head and neck?
• Does the pain last for minutes and then come back many times in one day?

Overview of Headaches and Facial Pain | What kind of headache/facial pain, do I have?

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