When to seek treatment
I’ve mentioned in both previous posts that doctors often don’t take headaches seriously when patients complain, and there’s a good reason for that. Just about everyone gets an occasional headache, usually related to an illness, stress or fatigue. In general, these headaches are easily treated with over-the-counter pain medications and aren’t considered serious.
But many doctors don’t understand the difference between secondary headache, those caused by other illnesses, and primary headache, which is a serious disorder all by itself.
Getting effective treatment for primary headache usually means finding a headache specialist. An exception to this would possibly be periodic migraine with a low frequency. Most general practitioners are now familiar with migraine and the most common medications used to treat it.
You should seek a headache specialist if:
- Headaches reduce your quality of life
Are you missing a lot of work because of your headaches, or is your productivity significantly reduced? Are you less active socially than you used to be? Are you afraid to make future plans because you are afraid you will have to cancel because of a headache? - Headaches have increased in frequency or severity
Frequent, chronic headaches often can be helped by taking a daily maintenance medication. However, some of these medications have serious side effects and should be monitored closely. - Your primary physician doesn’t take you seriously
You need to find another doctor if your family physician is telling you things like: “Everyone gets headaches.” “You’re a woman, and it’s probably hormones causing it.” “It’s probably just stress causing it.” - Memory, personality or cognitive abilities change
Primary headaches disorders often are accompanied by symptoms like short-term memory loss and difficulty concentrating. - Over-the-counter medicines don’t help
Primary headache is a neurological disorder that experts believe is caused by chemical imbalances in brain. Analgesics don’t address this problem, but there are many medications that do.
primary headache, secondary headache, headache treatment
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