“Just a Headache” – Even Less Common Than We Thought

Of course most of us know by now that migraine is not “just a headache”. In fact, it’s not “just migraine” either – there are many different types of migraine, and knowing the type of migraine you have may help you with treatment.

A recent study out of Spain is suggesting that the problem of the “just a headache” diagnosis may be even worse that we thought.

Imagine getting a headache diagnosis in the emergency department of your local hospital. If a doctor has to “guess” about what kind of headache you have, a good guess would be tension-type headache, right? Very common. Or is it?

The study took 2132 patients who had visited emergency, who had all been diagnosed with tension-type headache (TTH) (which isn’t caused by tension, by the way – hence the addition of the word “type”). Then the researchers used the criteria in the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD) – the standardized way to diagnose headaches.

Out of over 2000 patients who were told they had TTH, guess how many probably actually did have TTH? 2.4%!

Really? Yep. “Take an aspirin, and call me in the morning – it’s just a headache.” But – what kind of headache? And is aspirin the best treatment? And what is the underlying cause?

A few simple questions can be used to better diagnose headaches. Are doctors not educated? Is there some laziness here? Are some just assuming that “chances are” it’s TTH? But what if the statistics are skewed just because we’re assuming it’s so common?

These patients were actually suffering from quite a variety of headaches, all with different treatments.

You can check out the ICHD classifications for yourself, right here. If your doctor gives you a diagnosis, it can at least get you started (although it can be tricky if you don’t have a wider knowledge of why various headaches are diagnosed as they are). Don’t settle for an off-the-cuff diagnosis – it could mean that you will suffer much longer than you need to.