Pressing, throbbing headaches (cephalalgia) are a common complaint among patients, causing suffering and worsening the quality of life, which requires help. Unfortunately, often if it hurts somewhere, then this feeling is associated only with a specific place, without perceiving the picture as a whole, or worse, it is drowned out with pills, eliminating only the symptom. What's the result? The pain continues, and the medications cause additional harm. Doctors at the Quality of Life clinic will prescribe treatment and relieve discomfort in just a few sessions.
Prevalence of the disease
Tension headaches affect about 21% of the population. The prevalence of pain is 36% in men and 42% in women. In comparison, the prevalence of migraine is only 6% in men and 18% in women.
TTH is a dull, non-pulsatile pain, often bilateral, associated with tension in the scalp or neck. The severity of pain remains constant throughout the attack.
The disease often begins in adolescence and peaks around age 40, then gradually declines.
Localization of headache
However, it develops at any age - 15% of people develop it before the age of 10, and some develop it at age 50 or older. 40% of many who suffer from headaches have a close relative with some form of chronic headaches.
Many sick people experience periodic attacks, so-called. miniature migraines, otherwise called stress-vascular headaches. About 10% suffer from migraines in addition to tension headaches.
About 50% suffer from daily headaches, which sometimes persist for 10-30 years or more. 60% of people suffering from this disease have reduced social activity and ability to work.
Signs of illness
The main symptoms of the disease are:
- The most important sign of the disease is the appearance of severe pain in the head area, and it can be of moderate or mild severity. The patient gets used to this condition very quickly, but this process occurs gradually and may take some time. As a result of the fact that pain can be moderate, it is very rare for a patient to consult a doctor, preferring self-treatment. Headaches of muscle tension are quite easily tolerated, and they do not interfere at all with leading a normal lifestyle.
- A distinctive feature of this type of pain from others is that it is constant, but not pulsating.
- The duration of an attack can vary from half an hour to a couple of days. Depending on the individual characteristics of the patient’s body, the duration of pain will be characterized.
- This disease occurs not only in adults, but also among children. When making a diagnosis, practically no attention is paid to the patient’s age, since the factors that caused the condition are of greatest importance.
- Quite often, with the development of this disease, patients independently notice painful bilateral pressure in the head and may complain of pain that gradually moves from the forehead area, reaching the back of the head.
- This disease does not cause a strong feeling of nausea or vomiting, but the following accompanying phenomena may occur - intolerance to too bright lighting, nervousness, a sharp reaction to loud sounds, severe fatigue.
Causes
Various triggers can cause tension in pain-sensitive people:
- Stress. Usually the pain occurs in the afternoon after long, strenuous work.
- Lack of sleep.
- Uncomfortable body position or poor posture.
- Irregular meal times (hunger).
- Eye-strain.
It is believed that TTH may be caused by tension in the muscles around the neck and head.
Another suggestion is that TTH is caused by a faulty “pain filter” in the brainstem that misinterprets muscle signals as pain.
If you have a headache, you can relieve it with different remedies. Spasgan for headaches will help if the pain is of mild or moderate intensity.
Instructions for using Pentalgin for headaches are presented here.
After drinking large amounts of alcohol, a person may get a headache. We will tell you further how to get rid of unpleasant symptoms.
Consequences
Often, due to the mild severity of the symptoms of tension-type headache, a person gets used to it and simply does not pay attention to the pain. Meanwhile, tension within the body increases, ultimately leading to depression, nervousness, aggressive behavior, and psychosis. If TTH becomes pronounced, the patient cannot relax, feels weak, gets irritated for no apparent reason, and gets tired quickly.
When you try to cope on your own, without the use of professional complex therapy, the situation quickly worsens. Episodic attacks turn into systematic ones, which leads to a decrease in the level of performance, disorder of behavior and character of a person.
Treatment
Common pain medications, such as Aspirin and Ibuprofen, are quite effective in treating this condition.
Tricyclic antidepressants are also very useful for preventing these types of headaches.
Tricyclic antidepressants are more effective than SSRIs, but have more side effects.
The effectiveness of SSRIs, Propranolol and Muscle relaxants in the prevention and treatment of tension-type headache has not been proven to date.
Chronic pain can be successfully treated with some antidepressants, for example, Nortriptyline. The drugs Amitriptyline, Venlafaxine and Mirtazapine also help.
If treatment does not provide positive results (for example, in cases of daily persistent headaches), an MRI examination may be necessary to confirm a more complex diagnosis.
Prevention
Drinking water helps keep you hydrated and prevents tension headaches. Stress management and physiological and mental relaxation also reduce the incidence of pain.
Drinking alcohol can increase the likelihood of discomfort or make it more severe.
Maintaining good posture can prevent headaches, especially with neck pain.
People whose jaw clenching may trigger headaches can have their teeth treated by a dentist, which can also prevent headaches from occurring.
Physiotherapy methods
With frequent attacks of tension-type headache, taking painkillers does not always solve the problem. In some cases, this may, on the contrary, worsen the situation. Most often, patients are prescribed complex preventive treatment, the purpose of which is to reduce pain sensitivity and prevent further development of the disease.
The therapy uses stress-reducing, muscle relaxing, non-drug treatment methods that reduce the electrical activity of the brain, among which the most effective are:
- manual therapy;
- exercise therapy;
- physiotherapy for the head and neck area;
- carboxytherapy;
- ILBI;
- mesotherapy;
- acupuncture;
- blood ozonation;
- multimag (Headache program);
- MDM therapy;
- myorhythm;
- micropolarization of the cerebral hemispheres;
- cutaneous electrical neurostimulation.
Forecast
Tension headaches, which are not a symptom of another medical condition, can be painful but are not dangerous to the person.
They can usually be alleviated through prevention and treatment.
Tension headaches associated with another medical condition usually get relief from treatment of the underlying condition.
Frequent use of pain medications by patients with tension headaches can lead to the development of headaches associated with drug abuse, so-called. “rebound headaches.”
Advantages of treatment at the Quality of Life clinic
Doctors at the Quality of Life clinic have extensive experience in treating patients, even in the most difficult cases.
Perceiving the body as a whole helps achieve success. The treatment plan is drawn up not for a specific disease, but for the whole organism. This rule of osteopathy, combined with medical experience as traumatologists and orthopedists, allows clinic doctors to see the pathogenesis of tension pain, or any other. And after just a few sessions, patients notice a significant improvement in their condition: headaches go away, quality of life returns, concentration and desire to achieve their goals increases. An integrated approach, understanding the pathological mechanism of development of cephalgia, and acting on all links in the chain is the key to success. This is the only way the doctors at the Quality of Life clinic work.
Reviews about the treatment of tension headaches
- Andrey. Every day headache. Several things in life give me serious trouble, but headaches are my killer. I have had constant frequent pain of varying severity for the past 45 years. Although I treat my migraines, I have learned that it is often possible to push back the pain that begins if I catch it early in its development as tension. I take Excedrin in the form of tablets and capsules. It contains acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine, if anyone cares to know. It gives me 80% of the time when I can work normally.
- Victoria. When I have a headache, it is difficult for me to do anything. When I get a cold, I get headaches and body pain. I'm taking Paracetamol. My only advice is to not take it for more than 2 or 4 days. It affects the stomach and can make you feel jittery, but I'd rather have those problems for a short time than deal with a headache all day.
- Victor. There are many headache medications on the market today, but it is very difficult to choose the right one for certain symptoms. I'm currently taking Aspirin and Ibuprofen. They relieve pain quite quickly. I also use more expensive drugs. Although they are more expensive, they allow you to stop feeling a throbbing headache so often. Time is precious, no one wants to get more headaches. When the squeezing feeling of the excruciating headache disappears, I use only Aspirin.
- Ivan. I have very severe headaches. I have tried everything from Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Propranolol, Amitriptyline and many others but they just don't work for my headache. If you have this pain, then you know how painful and debilitating it is, more than anything. Just looking at anything or moving your eyes just becomes very painful. So I'm stuck with a constant severe headache that nothing can be done about. Or maybe I should take such a strong painkiller that I could lead a normal life?
Ibuprofen is probably known to everyone. Read reviews about the use of Ibuprofen for headaches before taking this drug.
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