Tension headache: symptoms and treatment

With each such unpleasant phenomenon as headaches, each of us faced. Nature and their forms can be different. The most common type of stress is headaches. Symptoms, treatment and reasons for this phenomenon will be discussed in the article.

This disease affects a third of all people on our planet. In most patients, this condition develops at a young age, if the disease occurs after 50 years, then this is more likely an exception. Women are more likely than men to have a tension headache . ICD-10, or international classification of diseases, assigns the code G44.2 of this pathology.

Forms of ailment

The headache of tension can be of two kinds:

• Episodic, developing due to stressful situations of low intensity. Both a few minutes and a few days can last a tension headache. Symptoms in this case are: moderate pain, which is eliminated by popular medications. On the quality of life, this state does not have a significant effect.

• Chronic tension headache symptoms have the following: painful sensations, most often bilateral, are localized in the occiputo-frontal region. Such pain develops as a result of a spasm of the muscles of the neck and head. Chronic tension headache is quite intense and monotonous.

The clinical picture of the two forms of the disease is the same, only their duration is different.

Symptoms of the disease

How does the tension headache manifest? Symptoms of this ailment, in addition to painful sensations, are manifested by weakness, fatigue, irritability, nervousness, fast fatigue. But this pain is not pulsating, it does not develop nausea and vomiting. Many patients are diagnosed with intolerance to noise and light, they complain of lack of appetite, insomnia, distraction of attention.

Patients define such pain as compressive and compressive, constricting and monotonous, dull and light, moderate and strong.

Some patients may get uncomfortable hair combing or wearing a headdress. The pain does not cease even at night, however, under physical exertion it does not increase. When probing the muscles of the neck and head, seals are felt. Pathology can develop at any age, often there is a headache of tension in children, this is due to mental overload.

Headache with muscle tension

Muscular tension headache is common among people of working age. Other names are idiopathic, psychogenic headache.

The cause of this condition is a prolonged contraction of the muscles of the face, neck, and skull. This leads to a decrease in the volume of blood flow in the vessels. As a result, oxygen starvation of muscle tissues can develop. As a result, toxins accumulate and a tension headache occurs. Symptoms in this case are as follows:

• Strong tension of the facial, cervical and brachial muscles;

• Dull, non-pulsating pain going to the forehead from the nape of the neck;

• Sensation in the forehead and temples of intense tension.

In the elderly, the development of such pains is not typical.

Headache with nervous tension

The headache of nervous tension, as a rule, is pronounced. A person in this state can not relax. Pain is a consequence of nervous overloads and frequent conflict situations.

If you digress from the traumatic factors of the soul, the pain can stop or weaken. For example, improve your health will help rest in the circle of close people, a trip to nature, watching a light film.

The lesions of the nervous system during the examination are not revealed, and human health, in general, does not threaten anything. However, painful feelings greatly reduce the quality of life, and the patient needs medical care.

How to normalize the condition?

If as a result of nervous overloads there is a tension headache , how to remove unpleasant sensations? In this case, it is very important to be able to relax. There are several ways to do this, namely:

• Do auto-training and yoga;

• Undergo several sessions of psychotherapy;

• Take a relaxing bath with the addition of medicinal herbs or stand under the hot water in the shower;

• Massage your neck;

• To undergo a course of physiotherapy;

• Regularly engage in therapeutic gymnastics.

Physical overload and tension headache

Quite often a painful sensation in the head region develops as a result of physical stress. Typically, this is due to the professional duties of a person: working at a computer or driving a car for a long time. Visual tension develops in jewelry and watchmakers, seamstresses, collectors of small elements of electronics, etc.

Such people should often take breaks in work, change their pose, and conduct self-massage of problem areas.

If the problem is with the child

Today, children are less likely than adults to develop a tension headache. Symptoms in this case are the same: two-sided compressive pain, the child becomes irritable, quickly tired. Often such unpleasant sensations are supplemented by pains in the back and neck, in the heart and joints, arterial pressure rises or, conversely, falls, the heart rate increases.

The cause of prolonged muscle strain is not a suitable desk or desk, resulting in the child being in an uncomfortable position for a long time. Also, the creation of pains contributes to stuffiness in the room, mental and physical fatigue, forced long-term starvation, weather disasters.

Causes

Most of the causes of this condition have already been described above. Also provoking factors of the disease may be:

• Anxiety, depression and other affective conditions;

• Muscle stress, if a person does not move for a long time (overstrain of the facial, ophthalmic, cervical muscles);

• Frequent use of analgesics and tranquilizers;

• Abrupt change of weather conditions;

• Incorrect posture, uncomfortable position of the body during sleep;

• At respiratory disturbances there is a feeling of alarm, the consequence of which is pain in the head;

• Ailments of the cervical spine;

• Excessive consumption of alcohol and caffeinated beverages.

Tension headache : treatment

Feedback on methods for eliminating headaches can be different. Because each organism is individual, and what helps one person is not at all suitable for another. How to treat tension headaches? An integrated approach is very important here. That is, therapy should consist not only in anesthesia, but also in eliminating the cause of the condition that has arisen. If a tension headache is diagnosed, the treatment is primarily:

• Prevention of stress, anxiety, mental overload, depression;

• Elimination of muscle tension;

• Prevention of side effects of pain medication.

Medication Therapy

With this pathology, the following drugs are used:

• Antidepressants - "Duloxetine", "Amitriptyline", "Paroxetine."

• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - "Naproxen", "Aspirin", "Ketoprofen".

• Muscle relaxants - "Tizanidin", "Tolperizon".

The combination of headache due to tension and abusus

When using pharmaceuticals should strictly adhere to the recommended treatment regimen. Uncontrolled use of medications, especially those related to non-steroid medications, can cause abusum headache. That is, the drugs themselves cause it. To differentiate this state from the tension headache, it is necessary to cancel the drug that caused the abusus for 2 months. If after this normalization of well-being does not occur, diagnose a "chronic tension headache". If, on the background of the abolition of medications, the patient's condition improves noticeably, then there is an abusive pain.

The combination of tension and migraine headaches

Some patients experience a combination of episodic tension headaches and episodic migraines. As a rule, such people suffer frequent migraines. And over time they develop headaches due to stress. These two forms of pathology have different symptoms, so distinguishing one from another will not be a big deal.

In the case of chronic migraine, seizures become atypical. And then it is difficult to distinguish a chronic migraine from a chronic tension headache. In such a situation, the patient is asked to keep a diary and for a long time (about 2 months) to note in it the clinical manifestations that facilitate and provoke the factors of each attack. This will simplify the further establishment of an accurate diagnosis.

Non-drug treatments

In such a state as a tension headache, treatment can be performed without the use of drugs. There are more sparing methods, they include:

• Relaxation of the body;

• Relaxing massage of tensed muscles;

• Acupuncture.

Traditional medicine in the fight against such a condition as a tension headache: treatment, reviews

This headache is not particularly intense, but it can for a long time disrupt the normal psycho-emotional state of a person. To reduce the manifestations of an attack the following recommendations will help:

• It is necessary to relax as much as possible, if possible, leave the workplace and move away from the computer for a few minutes.

• In a stressful situation, you should calm down and make a cup of herbal tea. According to the patients' reviews, the herb infusion of thyme not only perfectly strengthens the nerves, but also favorably affects the activity of the brain vessels. To prepare a healthful drink, add 5 liters of boiling water to 5 grams of herb, insist for 30 minutes. Received infusion take three times a day for a week, after a break for 14 days.

• In the treatment of this ailment, patients note the high efficiency of the following exercise: on inhalation the stomach is inflated, and on exhalation - slowly drawn. Exhalation should last twice as long as an inspiration. The procedure should be carried out within 15 minutes. By the way, with the help of such an exercise you can visibly tighten sagging muscles of the abdomen.

• Massage of the collar zone and head will noticeably improve the state of health. You can do it yourself - with your fingers or your comb.

• Many patients note the easing of pain after a strong long sleep or a relaxing bath.

• A good effect is given by a cold compress attached to the forehead. For him, you can use the plant golden mustache, cabbage leaf or beet gruel.

If the above recommendations do not give the desired result and the tension headache does not abate, how to relieve an attack and what medication to use for this purpose, an experienced specialist will tell.

Preventive actions

In some people, a painful feeling in the head region can occur quite often, in this case a chronic tension headache occurs. And often patients for the normalization of the state take a sufficiently large number of medications, which, in turn, can trigger new attacks. Therefore, it is important to know how to prevent the development of such pathology.

Prevention is as follows:

• Full rest at night. Every person should sleep at least eight hours a day. Specialists recommend to go to bed not later than 23 hours. It is from 11 pm and until 1 am that the body regains strength.

• To prevent the development of muscle tension during work, it is recommended to take an hour every hour and hold gymnastics for all departments of the musculoskeletal system.

• Make sure you take daily walks in the fresh air.

• Regular physical activity not only strengthens health, but also minimizes the negative impact of stressful situations.

• To improve the general condition of the body, it is recommended to take a course of treatment with decoctions of calming herbs, such plants include valerian, motherwort, pion tincture.

• The use of coffee and alcoholic beverages should be minimized.

Forecast

Rarely occurring episodic headaches do not particularly affect the working capacity and well-being of a person. If the number of seizures a month increases, this should be noted. Since in this case the disease can acquire a chronic course, as a result of which psychoemotional instability develops, depression. The prognosis depends on how timely the drug therapy was started, in particularly severe cases, treatment with antidepressants can last up to six months.

If it is revealed that the cause of pain is dependence on the taking of pain medication, then therapy requires a different approach. It is necessary to conduct a thorough medical examination, according to which the expert will advise an effective course of treatment with other medications.

Conclusion

After reading this article, you learned more about such a phenomenon as a tension headache. Symptoms, types, causes and principles of treatment of a pathological condition have been described above. Remember that positive emotions favorably affect the state of the whole organism, and when they prevail over the negative, the headaches develop much less often. Try to always keep a good mood and cheerfulness of the spirit, do not conceal feelings of resentment and anger in your soul, treat life with ease and easily - and then your emotional state will always be normal. Be healthy!