kephalalgia

[rone]

I get headaches often, of all sorts: sinus headaches, tension headaches, hunger headaches, dehydration headaches, allergic headaches, throbbing headaches, even the rare full-blown migraine.  They occur on the temples, at the forehead, up top, behind the ears, or any combination.  They are sometimes photophobic, phonophobic, rarely both.  Sometimes i'll get a headache if i need to go take a dump.  I don't get caffeine withdrawal headaches anymore, now that i've cut back, but those were insidious.  I've had headaches for as long as i can remember, and Excedrin (or its generic analogue) has been my constant companion (Bufferin when i was a kid; Mom and Dad didn't want me on caffeine); as a result, i'm intimately acquainted with the anti-headache pressure points along the neck, face, and hands.  I hate headaches because they're, at best, distracting, and, at worst, utterly debilitating.  If i had a magical wish, i think i'd definintely banish my headaches.

Comments

Re: I have minor sinus pain RIGHT NOW

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Unique Identifier
12011268

Authors
Cady RK. Schreiber CP.

Institution
Headache Care Center, Springfield, Missouri 65804, USA.

Title
Sinus headache or migraine? Considerations in making a differential diagnosis. [Review] [34 refs]

Source
Neurology. 58(9 Suppl 6):S10-4, 2002 May 14.

Local Messages
Held at HSL

Abstract
Sinus headache is commonly diagnosed, and patients with headache often cite sinus pain and pressure as a cause of their headaches. A high frequency of diagnosis of sinus headache, which specialists consider to be relatively rare, among patients meeting International Headache Society (IHS) diagnostic criteria for migraine raises the possibility that migraine and perhaps other headache types are sometimes mistaken for sinus headache. This article considers clinical, epidemiologic, and pathophysiologic relationships between sinus headache and migraine and discusses the implications for clinical management of headache. Both historic and new data show that nasal symptoms frequently accompany migraine, although these symptoms are not part of the IHS diagnostic criteria for migraine. Parasympathetic activation, as well as the hypothesized mechanism of neurogenic or immunogenic switching (i.e., crossover interactions of neurogenic and immunogenic inflammation), may account for both the frequent occurrence of nasal symptoms in migraine and the possibility that sinus inflammation can sometimes act as a migraine trigger. Considered in aggregate, the data show that the occurrence of nasal symptoms associated with a headache should neither trigger a diagnosis of sinus disease nor exclude a diagnosis of migraine. It should, in fact, prompt diagnostic consideration of both conditions.