Its a Headache, Isn It?
Sometimes, a headache is just that – a headache. Other times, a headache can be a symptom of another condition. In addition, there are different kinds of head pain, and treatments vary depending on the diagnosis. For these reasons, timely and accurate diagnosis is important if not critical. In the United States Alone, 50 million people have frequent headaches that result in 157 million lost work days, $50 billion in healthcare expenses, and $10 million visits to doctors’ offices. It is estimated that Americans spend $4 billion annually on over-the-counter medications for treatment of headache pain. In spite of these staggering statistics, headaches and Migraine are still terribly misunderstood, even by some doctors. To improve this situation, proper diagnosis is the first step. Two of the most important factors in diagnosis are a thorough patient and family medical history and a patient head pain diary. Since some types of head pain have a genetic component,
