With such an unpleasant phenomenon as headaches, each of us faced. The nature and forms of them may be different. The most common form is considered to be tension headaches. Symptoms, treatment and causes of this phenomenon will be considered 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 rather an exception. In women more often than in men, tension headache occurs. ICD-10, or the international classification of diseases, assigns code G44.2 to this pathology.
Forms of ailment
There are two types of tension headache:
Occasional, developing as a result of stressful situations of low intensity. For several minutes or several days, a headache of tension can last. Symptoms in this case are: moderate pain, which is eliminated by popular medications. Such a condition does not significantly affect the quality of life.
Chronic tension headache symptoms have the following: painful sensations, most often bilateral, they are localized in the occipital-frontal region. Such pain develops as a result of 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.
Signs of the disease
How does a tension headache manifest itself? The symptoms of this ailment, in addition to painful sensations, are manifested by weakness, fatigue, irritability, nervousness, rapid fatigue. But this pain is not pulsating, nausea and vomiting do not develop with it. Many patients are diagnosed with intolerance to noise and light, they complain of a lack of appetite, insomnia, and distracted attention.
Patients define such pain as constricting and constricting, constricting and monotonous, dull and light, moderate and strong.
Combing hair or wearing a hat may cause discomfort to some patients. The pain does not subside even at night, but during physical exertion it does not intensify. When palpating 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
Headache of muscle tension 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 blood flow in the vessels. As a result, oxygen starvation of muscle tissue may 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 back of the head;
sensation in the forehead and temples of intense tension.
In old age, the development of such pain is not typical.
Headache with nervous tension
Headache of nervous tension, as a rule, pronounced. A person in this state cannot relax. Pain is the result of nervous overload and frequent conflict situations.
If one distracts from the factors that traumatize the soul, painful sensations may cease or weaken. For example, rest in the circle of close people, a trip to the countryside, watching a light film will help to feel better.
Damage to the nervous system during the examination is not detected, and human health, in general, is not in danger. However, painful sensations greatly reduce the quality of life, and the patient needs medical attention.
How to normalize the condition?
If as a result of nervous overload there was a headache of tension, how to remove discomfort? In this case, it is very important to be able to relax. You can do this in several ways, namely:
do auto-training and yoga;
go through several sessions of psychotherapy;
take a relaxing bath with the addition of medicinal herbs or stand under hot water in the shower;
massage the neck;
take a course of physiotherapy;
regularly engage in therapeutic exercises.
Physical overload and stress headache
Quite often, a painful sensation in the head develops due to physical stress. As a rule, 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 jewelers and watchmakers, seamstresses, collectors of small electronics, etc.
Such people should often take breaks in work, change their posture, and conduct self-massage of problem areas.
If the problem is with the child
Today, children no less often than adults develop tension headaches. Symptoms in this case are the same: bilateral squeezing pain, the child becomes irritable, quickly gets tired. Often such unpleasant sensations are supplemented by pain in the back and neck, in the heart and joints, blood pressure rises or, conversely, drops, the heartbeat increases.
The cause of prolonged muscle tension is the desk or work table that is not suitable for growth, as a result of which the child is in an uncomfortable position for a long time. Also, the stuffiness in the room, mental and physical fatigue, forced prolonged starvation, weather disasters contribute to the occurrence of pain.
Causes
Most of the causes of this condition have already been described above. Also provoking factors of the disease can be:
anxiety, depression and other affective conditions;
muscle stress, if a person does not move for a long time (overstrain of the facial, eye, neck muscles);
frequent use of analgesics and tranquilizers;
- a sharp change in weather conditions;
poor posture, uncomfortable body position during sleep;
with respiratory disorders, there is a feeling of anxiety, the result of which is pain in the head;
ailments of the cervical spine;
excessive consumption of alcohol and caffeinated drinks.
Tension headache : treatment
Reviews of methods for eliminating headaches can be different. Because each organism is individual, and that which helps one person well is completely unsuitable for another. How to treat tension headaches? An integrated approach is very important here. That is, therapy should consist not only in pain relief, but also in eliminating the causes of the condition. If a tension headache is diagnosed , treatment primarily consists of:
Drug therapy
With this pathology, the following drugs are used:
Antidepressants - "Duloxetine", "Amitriptyline", "Paroxetine."
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - Naproxen, Aspirin, Ketoprofen.
Muscle relaxants - "Tizanidine", "Tolperizon".
Combination of headache due to tension and abusal
When using pharmaceuticals, one should strictly adhere to the treatment regimen recommended by the doctor. Uncontrolled medications, especially those related to non-steroidal drugs, can cause an abusal headache. That is, the drugs themselves cause it. To differentiate this condition from tension headache, the drug that caused the abusus should be canceled for 2 months. If after this normalization of well-being does not occur, they are diagnosed with a chronic tension headache. If, against the background of drug withdrawal, the patient's condition improves markedly, then there is abusal pain.
The combination of tension headache and migraine
Some patients have a combination of episodic tension headache and episodic migraine. As a rule, such people suffer from frequent migraines. And over time, they develop headaches due to stress. These two forms of pathology have different symptoms, so distinguishing one from the other will not be difficult.
In case of chronic migraine, seizures become atypical. And then it is difficult to distinguish a chronic migraine from a chronic tension headache. In this situation, the patient is asked to keep a diary and for a long time (about 2 months) to note clinical manifestations in it that facilitate and provoke the factors of each attack. This will simplify the further establishment of an accurate diagnosis.
Non-drug treatments
In a condition such as tension headache, treatment can be carried out without the use of drugs. There are more gentle methods, they include:
Traditional medicine in the fight against a condition such as tension headache: treatment, reviews
Such a headache is not particularly intense, but it can disturb the normal psycho-emotional state of a person for a long time. The following recommendations will help reduce the manifestations of an attack:
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, calm down and make a cup of herbal tea. According to patients' reviews, the thyme herb infusion not only strengthens the nerves perfectly, but also favorably affects the activity of brain vessels. To make a healthy drink, add 5 liters of boiling water to 5 grams of herb, insist for 30 minutes. The resulting infusion is taken three times a day for a week, after taking a break for 14 days.
When treating this ailment, patients note the high efficiency of the following exercise: on inspiration, the stomach is inflated, on exhalation, it is slowly retracted. The exhalation should last twice as long as the inhalation. The procedure should be carried out within 15 minutes. By the way, with the help of this exercise, you can significantly tighten the saggy abdominal muscles.
Massage of the collar zone and head will significantly improve well-being. You can do it yourself - with your fingers or a comb.
Many patients report a weakening of pain after a sound, prolonged sleep or a relaxing bath.
A good effect is given by a cold compress applied to the forehead. For it, you can use the plant a golden mustache, cabbage leaf or beet pulp.
If the above recommendations do not give the desired result and the headache of tension does not subside, how to relieve the attack and what medications to use for this purpose will tell an experienced specialist.
Preventive actions
In some people, a painful feeling in the head can occur quite often, in which case there is a chronic tension headache. And often, patients to normalize the condition take a fairly large number of medications, which, in turn, can provoke new attacks. Therefore, it is important to know how to prevent the development of such a pathology.
Prevention is as follows:
Full relaxation at night. Everyone should sleep at least eight hours a day. Experts recommend going to bed no later than 23 hours. It is from 11 o’clock in the evening to one in the morning the body regains strength.
To prevent the development of muscle tension during work, it is recommended to take a break every hour and conduct gymnastics for all departments of the musculoskeletal system.
Be sure to take daily walks in the fresh air.
Regular physical activity not only enhances health, but also minimizes the negative impact of stressful situations.
To improve the general condition of the body, it is recommended to undergo treatment with decoctions of soothing medicinal herbs, such plants include valerian, motherwort, peony tincture.
Drinking coffee and alcohol should be minimized.
Forecast
Rarely occurring episodic headaches do not particularly affect a person's performance and well-being. If the number of seizures per month increases, this is worth paying attention to. Since in this case the disease can acquire a chronic course, as a result of which psycho-emotional instability and depression develop. The prognosis depends on how timely drug therapy was started; in especially severe cases, antidepressant treatment can last up to six months.
If it is revealed that the cause of the pain is dependence on taking pain medication, then therapy requires a different approach. It is necessary to conduct a thorough medical examination, according to the results of which the specialist will advise an effective course of treatment with other drugs.
Conclusion
After reading this article, you learned more about the phenomenon of 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 negative ones, headaches develop much less frequently. Try to always maintain a good mood and good spirits, do not harbor a feeling of resentment and anger in your soul, take life at ease and easily - and then your emotional state will always be normal. Be healthy!