Headache disorders can be divided into primary and secondary types. A secondary headache is one caused by an underlying disease or physiologic condition. Primary headaches are not symptomatic of another condition. They are among the commonest human afflictions. Tension-type headache has a lifetime prevalence of 78%, and migraine, 16%. Secondary headaches are much less common: posttraumatic headache has a lifetime prevalence of 4%, and headache caused by brain tumor, less than 0.5%.
The term tension headache is an old one that reflects two outdated, discredited ideas of pathophysiology: that the headache is due to emotional “tension” or to excessive “tension” (contraction) of pericranial muscles. Current thinking holds that abnormal sensitivity of brain nerve cells is the cause, but the old name, with a slight change, to tension-typeheadache, has been retained. Tension-type headache is more common in women, with gender ratios ranging from 1.04 to 1.4. Prevalence peaks between 20 and...
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Suggested Reading
Dalessio, D. J., & Silberstein, S. D. (1993). Wolff’s headache and other head pain (6th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
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Silberstein, S. D., Lipton, R. B., & Goadsby, P. J. (1998). Headache in clinical practice. Oxford: Isis Medical.
Silberstein, S. D., Stiles, A., Young, W. B., & Rozen, T. D. (2002). An atlas of headache. New York: Parthenon.
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Winkelman, M.D. (2004). Headache. In: Encyclopedia of Women’s Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48113-0_185
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48113-0_185
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