Headache

headache, pain in various parts of the head. Headaches affect nearly everyone at some time in their life, recurrent headaches approximately 10 percent of persons. Headaches vary widely in their intensity and in the seriousness of the underlying conditions that cause them. Most headaches occur because specific pain-sensitive structures in or around the head are overstimulated or damaged. Some of these structures are inside the skull, or intracranial; the remainder are in the tissues surrounding or covering the skull, or extracranial.

An intracranial headache results from the dilation of arterial blood vessels at the base of the brain caused by a temporary increase in blood supply. An intracranial headache may result as a consequence of a fever, a “hangover,” or a severe and sudden attack of high blood pressure. An inflammation or hemorrhage affecting the arteries and their adjacent meningeal tissues (as during meningitis or a cerebral hemorrhage) can similarly cause an intracranial headache. One can also occur if a tumour displaces tissues inside the skull. Intracranial headaches often begin abruptly; they usually occur on awaking or at night, and pain usually changes with a change in posture. Intracranial causes of headache almost always produce associated abnormalities that a physician can detect by physical examination or laboratory tests.

Extracranial headaches may be caused by dilation and distension of the extracranial arteries that supply the surface tissues of the head or sustained contraction of the skeletal muscles of the face, scalp, and neck. Excess fatigue, neck problems, and eyestrain can all cause extracranial headaches.