Chronic Pain  - http://www.painsweb.com
Headache Diagnosis and Treatment
http://www.painsweb.com/articles/342/1/Headache-Diagnosis-and-Treatment/Page1.html
By Sam Carson
Published on 12/26/2006
 
Most of the time headaches are harmless but there is a percentage that there is more to the fact than a minor headache. Headaches can often be warning signals to something more serious. Depending on whether or not you can treat your headache with over the counter medications can be a determination if you need further diagnosis. The length of the headache and the severity of the pain are also determining factors as well.  If you experience other symptoms like stiff neck, fever, convulsion and even loss of consciousness, you need to have further testing, those are serious symptoms and they need to be treated as such.
Headache Diagnosis and Treatment
Most of the time headaches are harmless but there is a percentage that there is more to the fact than a minor headache. Headaches can often be warning signals to something more serious. Depending on whether or not you can treat your headache with over the counter medications can be a determination if you need further diagnosis. The length of the headache and the severity of the pain are also determining factors as well.  If you experience other symptoms like stiff neck, fever, convulsion and even loss of consciousness, you need to have further testing, those are serious symptoms and they need to be treated as such.

When you are being diagnosed it is very important to make sure the doctor has a full understanding of how much pain you experience and how often these occurrences happen. Make sure to give him any family history as well. Then the doctor may order some tests such as CT/CAT scans, MRI’s or even blood work that would be able to determine what else is going on.

Treatments for headaches do not require medical attention all the time. Some common headaches can be treated with acetaminophen, aspirin and ibuprofen. Most people don’t know this but by lowering the body temperature you can remove the tension from the body. You can do this by taking a warm or cool shower until the pain begins to subside. Don’t use hot water, it will increase the pain. If you experience headaches more on a recurring basis, keep a journal with what medications you took to get rid of the pain, how long the pain lasted and what time of day. Take the journal to the doctor if the headaches persist.

There may be some forms of prevention treatments with headaches such as migraines. Caffeine is recommended to help a headache; other treatments may be Tylenol, Vitamin B2 and Ultra. Headaches happen and sometimes you just can’t prevent them.

For additional information and resources on Chronic Pain, visit PainsWeb.com. The author Sam Carson is a chronic pain patient and publisher of PainsWeb.com. His website specializes in conveying targeted information about all types of Chronic Pain and helps you find associated information, patient resources and forums etc to manage your pain. Authors can submit quality original articles to PainsWeb.com and get a back link to their site.