Most of us would not think of a headache as a serious health condition. However, if you experiences headaches fifteen days or more in a month, the individual may be suffering from a condition called chronic headache or chronic daily headache (CDH). It is claimed that chronic headache condition affects about 4%-5% of the general adult population.

The chronic headache condition could be categorized into a number of sub-categories such as chronic migraine, chronic tension type, new daily persistent and hemicrania continua. Furthermore, it should be noted that each of these subtypes may display its own set of signs and symptoms while the common symptom displayed by all is the persisting pain in the areas of the head. Migraine type of chronic headaches may display symptoms including nausea, vomiting, light and sound sensitivity and a severe headache occurring only on one side of the head with a pulsating or throbbing feeling. Individuals suffering from chronic tension type headaches may suffer from symptoms such as headaches that hurt both sides of the head and slight to moderate pain which is generally described as pressing or tightening.

New daily persistent headaches, a subtype of chronic headache condition has the unique symptom where headaches that crop up abruptly and persists for almost three days. The headache appears on both sided of the head and is generally described by patients to be of tightening or pressing sensation rather than throbbing. In addition to these subtypes, hemicranias continua is also classified as a part of the chronic headache condition with symptoms that are quite clearly more visible than the other subtypes. Patients affected by this type of chronic headache condition might show symptoms like headaches that only crop up on one side of the head daily and persistently and certain areas like the eye lid might show some swelling, the eye on the affected side would appear red and they patients might experience nasal congestion also.

Upto now, a cure doesn’t exist for chronic headache conditions although certain medical and non medical methods are available to ease the pain experienced by patients. Relaxation training, acupuncture, paracetamol, asprin and physical therapy are some of the treatment recommended in treating chronic headaches. Also, techniques like changes in the diet and psychological therapy are also being experimented as potential treatments for chronic headache conditions. According to many researches a combination of medicinal and non medicinal methods would be the most effective form of treatment.

Therefore, if you are suffering from chronic headaches it is vital to get medical help as soon as possible. Early treatment could greatly help a patient though a definite cure is yet to be found.

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