Chronic Headaches
Generally, most of the people would not consider a headache to be a serious illness. However, if one experiences headaches fifteen days or more in a month, the individual may be suffering from a condition referred to as chronic headache or chronic daily headache (CDH). Statistics show that around 4%-5% of adults suffer from chronic headaches.
The chronic headache condition can be classified into several sub-categories like chronic migraine, chronic tension type, new daily persistent and hemicrania continua. You would experience a persistent pain in the head in all these instances but remember that these each subtype might show unique sets of symptoms. Migraine type of chronic headaches might show symptoms including nausea, vomiting, light and sound sensitivity and a severe headache affecting just one side of the head with a pulsating or throbbing feeling. You might feel that both sides of your head is paining in a manner that is not quite severe and feel a pressing or tightening kind of sensation in your head if you happen to be experiencing chronic tension.
New daily persistent headaches, a subtype of chronic headache condition is characterized by headaches that crop up abruptly and continues for nearly three days. The headache appears on both sided of the head and is generally described by patients to be of tightening or pressing sensation rather than throbbing. In addition to these subtypes, hemicranias continua is also classified as a part of the chronic headache condition with symptoms that are rather more noticeable than the other subtypes. Symptoms such as daily persisting headaches that occur only on one side of the head without any sign of relief and also redness of eye near the affected area, nasal congestion and eye lid swelling are commonly displayed by individuals suffering from this type of chronic headache condition.
Upto now, a cure doesn’t exist for chronic headache conditions although certain medical and non medical treatments are available to ease the pain experienced by patients. Relaxation training, acupuncture, paracetamol, asprin and physical therapy are some of the treatment recommended in treating chronic headaches. Also, techniques like changes in the diet and psychological therapy are also being experimented as potential treatments for chronic headache conditions. Modern research show that combining medical and non medical treatment is likely to show optimum results.
Therefore, if you are suffering from chronic headaches it is vital to get medical help as soon as possible. Early treatment could greatly help a patient though a definite cure is yet to be found.
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