Headaches - Seeking Medical Advice for Headaches
While it may seem fairly easy to diagnose a headache correctly identifying them is trickier than you might think. In many instances patients may think they have sinusitis but actually have a mild migraine. One respected study reports that 97 percent of people wrongly self-diagnosed themselves.
But you can improve the odds of getting a correct diagnosis from your physician by giving him or her all the assistance you can.
Headache Diary
First and foremost, for those who have frequent headaches, keeping a diary is a must. The diary should note when it began and ended, as accurately as possible. Note the location and type of pain as well as you can. Though pain is subjective, it's helpful to make notes about the severity, too.
Knowing the degree, type and frequency of a headache is the first step to differentiating between, say, a migraine and a cluster headache, or an ordinary tension headache. Migraines produce a pulsating pain that strikes at odd moments, while cluster headaches tend to occur around the same time every day for weeks.
Make careful notes about diet, exercise and life-factors, too.
Changes in diet can lead to certain headaches. Chocolate, red wine, cheese and other foods and drinks are often triggers for those who are a sensitive. Excess exercise can often produce headaches, though how much is excessive will, of course, vary from person to person. Life-factors, such as moving to a new town, work or relationship stress and others can produce headaches.
When those factors lead to an ordinary tension headache that responds to aspirin or acetaminophen, then doesn't reoccur, there's little to do. But when the condition becomes more intense or long-lived, that diary is essential to providing physicians with needed clues for proper diagnosis.
Advanced Tools
There are literally hundreds of underlying medical conditions that can produce so-called 'secondary headaches'. That is a headache in which the head pain and its cause is not the primary factor. In 'primary headaches' the head pain is itself the medical condition.
No one, not even physicians, can always detect correctly at first which of these possible conditions is responsible. But they have the tools that can narrow them down. CT scans and MRI are two of the most common.
CT (Computer Tomography) scans use a series of directed x-rays that are combined by the computer to provide a 3-D 'picture' of the brain. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) does not use x-rays, but the electromagnetic activity of the brain itself, to map structures and conditions within the skull.
Both those have become outstanding diagnostic tools to determine the type of headache and any possible underlying neurological condition that might be producing it. In rare (but often obvious, once the tests are complete), cases a brain tumor or cancer is the underlying cause of headache.
There are two basic ways of obtaining information to base a diagnosis on. The first information to consider is the patient's self-evaluation. The other important step in having a diagnosis is the doctor's examine. Combining the patient and physician's evaluations leads to a more accurate diagnosis.
Cluster headaches have been described by sufferers as being more painful than childbirth or migraines.
Acetaminophen can be effective in some cases. Other extreme treatments such as removal of part of the brain, nerve blocks, and other neurological surgeries can be used when all other options have been failed. In the latter case, around 17% of women get them, while only about 6% of men, according to one large study. But when the underlying cause is, for example, a brain tumor or cancer, surgery may well be the best course of treatment. In addition, studies have shown a connection between contraceptive pills and migraines. Patients with ulcers or those taking coagulation medication should as well.
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