HEADACHE

   Headache is one of the most common complaint made by people. Mostly people think headache is not serious and is due to tension or need / improper eyeglasses. This is not true. Headache is due to number of causes.

Causes for headache

Can be divided in following groups:

  Muscle Contraction.
  Migraine.
  Diseases of the head , eyes, ear, teeth etc.

Muscle Contraction

This is most common type of headache. The pain comes from pulling of the muscles in the neck and the base of the head. These pain may be felt in forehead , temples and around the eyes misleading the cause for headache.

This may be due to;

  tension and anxiety in the life
  may result because of sleeping in strange position
  a long period of close work.
  Spondylitis
  Depression

Treatment: Usually gets relief by analgesics.

Migraine

Cause : Stretching of blood vessels in head.
Some people have tendency for migraine and it may be familial.
Clinical Features:

	Typical Migraine: Intermittent severe headache involving half of head. Usually with nausea and vomiting. May be accompanied by temporary visual disturbance.
	Atypical Migraine: Severe headache without any symptoms.

Other Causes of Headache

Though not common but may be very important.

	Headache related to eye Diseases; Refractive errors Muscle Imbalnce : If it is marked it may cause squint but if it is not so much it may cause : Latent Squint:  In this condition eye remains straight in normal gaze but gets squinted on strain and tiredness. Squint is seen on covering one eye - the covered eye becomes squinted. Actually the imbalance in this case is not so much to cause obvious squint . Eye muscles tries to maintain binocular vision. This causes strain and headache. Mostly it is due to refractive error and correction may give relief from headache. Convergence insufficiency:   Normally both eye go inside for near work . This is known as convergence. Due to muscle weakness or refractive errors sometimes they fail to come together for near work causing strain and headache on near work. Correction of refractive errors and convergence exercises may give relief. Eye diseases causing headache: Acute congestive glaucoma: In angle closure glaucoma if there is sudden rise of Intraocular pressure the patient expirience severe pain in eyes along with headache and nausea and vomiting. This is known as acute congestive glaucoma.  Lens Induced glaucoma Acute Uveitis  Etc
	Headache due to other diseases: There is the long list Important ones are listed below: High blood pressure. Cervical spondylitis. Sinusitis. Dental Problems Brain tumors and other brain related diseases