Headache Disease State Management

A headache is a generalized term describing an ache or pain that may occur in one or more areas of the head, face, mouth, or neck. Headaches are a very common occurrence and affect over 45 million Americans annually. According to the American Council for Headache Education. “What you should know about headache” January 25 2004 edition approximately 90% of men and 95% of women complain of at least one headache on any given year. Americans spend over $2 billion annually on OTC medications for the treatment of these headaches.

Headaches can be classified in three distinct categories. Tension headaches are considered the most common type of headache and typically caused by stress, anxiety, muscular tension, or due to illness/fever. Cluster headaches are extremely painful yet much less common, and may result from the use of drugs that dilate or constrict the blood vessels or alcohol consumption. Unlike tension headaches that respond to OTC medications, cluster headache sufferers typically will be treated with narcotic pain medications, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, valproate, ergotamine, lithium, methysergide, and may respond to inhalation of 100% oxygen at 8-10 liters per minute. Migraine headaches are the final class of headaches and are typically caused by a combination of vasodilatation and the release of chemicals from the nerve fibers that surround the blood vessel. Migraines are believed to impact the lives of an estimated 28 million Americans, although women experience migraines at a higher frequency than males. Migraine sufferers have symptoms of nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, and severe throbbing pain that may be felt on one or both sides of the head. Treatment for migraines typically does not focus on the resolution of pain through the use of analgesics, but attempts to resolve the cause of the headache by reducing inflammation and constricting the blood flow to these vessels. Ergots and triptans like naratriptan, rizatriptan, sumatriptan, zolmitriptan, naratriptan, almotriptan, and frovatriptan are abortive drugs of choice for migraine sufferers and are available in multiple dosage forms such as injections, oral tablets, orally disintegrating tablets, and nasal sprays.

National Headache Foundation - Enhancing the healthcare of headache sufferers.

MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Headache - MedlinePlus: Trusted Health Information for You

WebMD: Headaches - Better information, better health

ACP Online: Headaches - American College of Physicians is a national organization of internists — physicians who specialize in the prevention, detection and treatment of illnesses in adults.

Headache: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia