Chronic headaches: Not just a symptom
MANILA, Philippines - “Headache is felt, at some time, by nearly everybody, and almost half the world’s adults at any one time have recent personal experience of one or more headache disorders,” according to a study conducted by the World Health Organization and Lifting the Burden, a UK-based NGO. The study is published in a document called “Atlas of Headache Disorders and Resources in the World 2011.” Migraine and tension-type headaches (TTH) are the most common types of headaches, according to the study. Both conditions can be extremely debilitating, and both disorders can and do frequently occur in otherwise perfectly healthy individuals.
TTHs are extremely common, yet relatively poorly understood — they are thought to be muscular in origin, and largely believed to be stress-induced; they can last for hours. The most serious sub-type of TTHs are chronic TTHs, which can persist for as long as several days, and by definition, those affected suffer from headaches at least 15 days in a month; they are also extremely debilitating. TTH headaches are characterized by a tightness that feels like having a band around the head, sometimes from the back of the neck to the forehead. The causes of chronic TTHs are not well understood, and the condition tends to worsen with time.
Migraines are largely believed to be genetic in origin. They occur in episodes, and are usually triggered by environmental factors such as a rapid change in temperature or intake of stimulants. Migraines are most often severe, the pain is debilitating and usually accompanied by nausea. Migraine episodes often last for days at a time, and the predisposition to have migraine episodes is a lifelong condition.
The study concludes: “Headache disorders are ubiquitous, disabling, and largely treatable, but under-recognized, under-diagnosed, and under-treated.” It adds that the cost to society of treating the headaches would be far less than what leaving them untreated is costing at present. The same, of course, holds true for employers of headache sufferers. Given the global prevalence of headaches, the fact that our own healthcare system is admittedly lagging behind much of the world, we should be taking the issue a lot more seriously.
