by admin | Feb 25, 2011 | Types of Headaches
Coital Headache Treatment
There are two types of sexually-associated headaches: pre-orgasmic headache, and orgasmic headache, or post-coital headaches. Other names sometimes used for sex headaches are orgasmic cephalgia, coital headache, or orgasmic migraine. (Not everyone with this type of headache has migraines.)
Orgasmic headaches have been thought to be a variant of exercise-induced headache, at least in some cases. However, any type of sexual activity that leads to orgasm, including oral sex and masturbation, has been associated with headaches.
Sex headaches occur in 3% to 4% of sexually active men, and a slightly lower number of women. A small survey (176 people) done by the National Headache Foundation found that 46% of those surveyed reported having had sex headaches, however over 1/3 had only had six such headaches. Having another type of headache (migraine, tension-type headache, and exertional headache) increases the risk of developing sex headaches. It should be noted that medications used to treat erectile dysfunction (Viagra®, Cialis®, and Levitra®) can also cause headache as a side-effect.
Pre-orgasmic headaches are a dull ache in the head and neck, associated with awareness of tight neck and jaw muscles during sexual activity, that increases during increasing sexual excitement. This bilateral headache builds slowly and can become more intense a few minutes before orgasm.
Post-coital headache is a sudden, severe, explosive headache occurring at orgasm. Understandably, this can be quite alarming the first time it occurs. Although it is probably not a sign of something serious, it is best to see your doctor to make certain. Occasionally, this type of headache does herald a potentially serious problem. About 78% of sex headaches are post-coital headaches—the abruptly occurring kind. The co-occurrence of migraine is more common with this type of sex headache. There are both episodic and chronic forms of sex headaches. About 75% are the episodic kind, and 25% are the chronic kind. Prognosis is best if you only have a few attacks.
Sex headaches—should I be worried?
What’s going on with your head, anyway? In most cases, the pain is caused by blood pressure changes or changes in blood vessel diameter. In rare situations, though, this headache is caused by blood leaking out of a blood vessel and into your brain at the time of this headache. This can be due to weakness in the blood vessel wall. This is why anytime you experience the worst headache of your life, or if you have had the first sex headache or “thunderclap headache,” you should be evaluated to rule out a serious condition.
Once you have seen a doctor to rule out a potentially serious problem, treatment may be offered. If orgasmic headache happens infrequently, it can often be prevented with prescription-strength nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories. If you are in an episode with frequent occurrences, or if you experience the chronic form of sex headache, preventive medications can reduce the severity of your symptoms. Beta blockers and calcium channel blockers have been found to be effective.
References:
by admin | Dec 3, 2010 | Types of Headaches
Ice Pick headaches
Ice pick headaches are sharp, stabbing pains occurring as a single stab or as a series of stabs, occurring mostly in the eye and orbit, temple, or parietal regions. Stabs last a few seconds, and may recur throughout the day, usually at irregular intervals. This headache type is not well understood, even though it occurs more commonly in migraine sufferers. Although this is often referred to as ice pick headache, the official term according to the International Headache Society is Primary Stabbing Headache. It has also been referred to as “jabs and jolts.”
Treatment of icepick headaches is difficult, because the pain comes and goes too quickly to take anything. These stabbing head pains tend to be a little more common if you also have migraines or cluster headaches, but ice pick headaches can occur independently. Some studies indicate a female predominance for icepick headaches.
Although this headache type is sometimes listed as one of the less frequently occurring headaches, some version of the phrase “ice pick headache” remains in the top search terms for this website month after month. So, either it occurs more frequently than previously appreciated, or the symptoms are so terribly bothersome that it drives sufferers to seek information. Perhaps both. Some estimates have indicated that as many as 40% of migraine sufferers may also have had ice pick headaches at some time in their lives, but there is no good epidemiologic data available to confirm this.
What are Ice Pick Headaches?
Ice pick headaches (called primary stabbing headache now in the International Headache Diagnostic Criteria) are defined as either a single stab or a series of stabs felt in the orbital region (around or behind your eye), temporal area, or parietal area of the head. (The parietal area is behind the temporal area.) Stabs occur with irregular frequency. On days that they occur, they may occur only once, or may occur many times per day, but with no regularity. Duration of stabs is short, usually a few seconds.
So, what does an ice pick headache feel like? Well, pretty much like it sounds—like an ice pick suddenly jabbing into your head without warning. The pain is often sharp and severe, and most people who have had these headaches are glad they don’t last very long.
Stabbing headache or ice pick headaches can occur as an isolated headache type, but occur more commonly in migraine or cluster headache sufferers. The pain experienced can be very intense, and tends to hit without warning. If you experience tears, redness of the eye, and nasal stuffiness in conjunction with stabbing pains in the temporal region or the orbital region, it is likely that you have a rare headache type known as SUNCT (Short-lasting Unilateral Neuralgiform headache attacks with Conjuctival injection and Tearing), which is one of the Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalgias. Another condition that needs to be ruled out is trigeminal neuralgia, which causes facial pain and can sometimes feel like a jolt in the face.
Headache textbooks tend to be somewhat dismissive of stabbing headache, indicating that reassurance should be offered, since this headache type does not indicate underlying pathology such as a tumor or aneurysm. This, however, is not terribly helpful to the sufferer who is experiencing the sensation of needles, ice picks, spikes, or tiny knives being jabbed into their head on a recurring but unpredictable basis.
Some sufferers of stabbing headaches indicate that they started to experience them in childhood. Most attacks of ice pick headache occur randomly and without warning, although some sufferers have identified emotional or other stressors as triggers. Other than stress, triggers of ice pick headache have not been clearly identified.
Treatment for Icepick Headaches
Treatment is problematic, since the attacks are so short. In some cases, indomethacin taken preventatively will be helpful, but this is by no means universally so. Some migraine sufferers who also experience ice pick headaches report that the stabbing headaches improve with better control of their migraines. A small case series (three patients) reported benefit for ice pick headache from melatonin. As with many headache types, more information is needed before we more fully understand the underlying causes and can offer a meaningful solution.
References
1. Rozen, TD. Melatonin as treatment for idiopathic stabbing headache. Neurology. 2003; 61:865-866.
2. Raskin, NH, Schwartz, RK. Icepick-like pain. Neurology. 1980 Feb;30(2):203-5.
by admin | Feb 9, 2010 | Types of Headaches
Chronic Daily Headache
About 3% of the adult population suffers from chronic daily headache; it may be slightly more prevalent in the adolescent population. This condition is not well-understood, although research into this type of headache is ongoing.
Sometimes chronic headache starts up as daily headaches from day 1, and is called new daily persistent headache. In other cases, other headache types such as migraine or tension type headache occur more and more frequently, becoming chronic until they finally become daily or near-daily. Sometimes, chronic daily headache occurs because of medication overuse.
Recent studies have shown that risk factors for the development of chronic daily headache include sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, snoring, and obesity in addition to medication use.
by Christina Peterson, MD
updated Feb 9, 2010
by admin | Jan 14, 2010 | Types of Headaches
Hangover headache? That’s one kind of metabolic headache
There are several types of metabolic abnormalities that can result in headache. The two you might be most familiar with might be dehydration and hangover. It’s pretty important to make sure you stay hydrated. A less common metabolic headache would be low blood sugar from skipping meals.
Exposure to toxic substances can also cause headaches. Examples of this would be exposure to chemical fumes or even the fumes from household cleaning products. A
Another, however, would be drug-induced headaches. Common examples of medications that can cause a headache would be nitroglycerin and other nitrates taken for heart disease, or medications like Viagra®, Cialis® or Levitra®. Be aware that many medications can cause headaches. If you are taking something new, and you have started to have more headaches than usual, it could just be the medication.
by admin | Nov 13, 2009 | Types of Headaches
Organic Headaches
Organic headaches are due to underlying medical disorders such as infection, tumor, or stroke.
In the case of tumor, the headache usually appears and gradually grows worse over time. Infections also may grow worse over time, but may do so more quickly.
This type of headache is a type of secondary headache, meaning that it is due to a secondary cause.
Recent Comments