Headache Treatment in Noida | Noida Pain Management Clinic

A large majority of patients suffer from headaches at some point in their lifetime and it can be a very distressing pain. There are more than 150 varieties of headaches and identifying each subtype is very important as management depends upon that particular type.

Common types of headaches

• Migraine - Migraine can affect around 18% of females and 5% of males. The age group most frequently affected is that of 25 to 55, with a female-to-male ratio of 3:1. A typical migraine patient has a severe attack of pulsating or throbbing headache lasting for 30 min to hours with nausea and vomiting.

Common symptoms of migraine-

• Patient avoids loud noise and light
• Nausea and vomiting
• Patient prefers to remain idle during the attack
• Blurred vision sometimes.

• Fatigue.
• Irritability.
• Elation.
• Poor concentration.
• Physical hyperactivity.
• Yawning.
• Muscle pain/stiffness.
• Food craving.

Diagnosis.

Migraine is a clinical diagnosis. An astute physician will diagnose migraine based on typical signs and symptoms of a patient though sometimes MRI may be required in a minority of patients to rule out any serious pathology.

Management.

Management of migraine is multidimensional and includes the following. 

• Medicines- Now there is a wide range of safe medications for migraine. These include paracetamol, NSAIDs, and antiepileptics. Medications not only decrease the frequency of attacks but also their intensity. A large majority of patients get significant relief with medications.
• Lifestyle changes- The importance of lifestyle changes is profound in migraine management. Maintaining regular sleep patterns (if possible, patients should awaken at the same time every day because oversleeping may trigger a migraine attack), eating a regular meal pattern (missing meals or fasting may trigger headache), and avoiding caffeine in the diet is very helpful.
• Injections- Sometimes occipital nerve block or botox injections are very helpful in relieving the pain if not controlled by medications. 

• Simple analgesics.
• Skeletal muscle relaxants.
• Anxiolytics
• Cognitive-behavioural treatment.
• TENS and physical therapy.
• Trigger point injections.

Cluster headache

Characterized by recurrent bouts of extremely painful, unilateral headache attacks, of relatively short duration. Unlike other headaches, this headache affects males much more than females. The attacks are clustered over several weeks and separated from another cycle by having a completely pain-free interval in the majority of the patients.



Associated symptoms-

Cluster headache has a very characteristic pattern. It also has some classical symptoms with each headache attack:

• Watering from eyes
• Nasal stuffiness
• Photophobia
• Blurred vision
• Redness of the face
• Vertigo
• Neck muscle stiffness or tenderness.

Management

A cluster headache has to be managed quickly as it’s a very severe headache. Various measures like using oxygen, antiepileptics, lignocaine intranasally, etc are quite effective in managing an attack of cluster headaches.