Types of Headaches.. Which ones have you experienced?

What are headache disorders?

Headache disorders are among the most common disorders of the nervous system. Headache is a painful and disabling feature of a small number of primary headache disorders namely migraine, tension-type headache, and cluster headache. Headache can also be caused by or occur secondarily to a long list of other conditions, for example medication overuse headache. 

How common are headache disorders?

Globally, it has been estimated that prevalence among adults of current headache disorder (symptomatic at least once within the last year) is 47%. Half to three quarters of

the adults aged 18–65 years in the world have had headache in the last year and among those individuals, more than 10% have reported migraine. Headache on 15 or more days every month affects 1.7–4% of the world’s adult population. Despite regional variations, headache disorders are a worldwide problem, affecting people of all ages, races, income levels and geographical areas. 

What is the burden due to headache disorders?

Not only is headache painful, but also disabling. In the Global Burden of Disease Study, updated in 2004, migraine on its own was found to account for 1.3% of years lost due to disability (YLD). 

Headache disorders impose a recognizable burden on sufferers including sometimes substantial personal suffering, impaired quality of life and financial cost. Repeated headache attacks, and often the constant fear of the next one, damage family life, social life and employment. The long-term effort of coping with a chronic headache disorder may also predispose the individual to other illnesses. For example, depression is three times more common in people with migraine or severe headaches than in healthy individuals. 

Types of headache disorders

• Migraine
• Tension-type headache (TTH)
• Cluster Headache (CH)
• Medication-overuse headache (MOH)

Treatment

Appropriate treatment of headache disorders requires professional training of health professionals, accurate diagnosis and recognition of the condition, appropriate treatment with cost-effective medications, simple lifestyle modifications, and patient education. The main classes of drugs to treat headache disorders include: analgesics, anti-emetics, anti-migraine medications, and prophylactic medications. However a large number of people with headache disorders are not diagnosed and treated. 

Source: who.int