Headaches

Call for emergency help or go to a hospital emergency department if you have a headache and:

• it began after a severe head injury
• it started suddenly and is very severe (it may feel like a blinding pain)
• you have new sudden symptoms of a stroke, like being unable to walk, weakness down one side of the face or body, or slurred speech
• you have symptoms of meningitis or sepsis, like a high fever with a stiff neck
• you are not responding normally, or are very drowsy and struggling to stay awake
• you have visual problems that are new and different to any you've had before, and are not related to a migraine

Contact your doctor urgently if you have a headache and:

• you also feel more confused than usual
• the whole of your eye is red
• your vision changes
• it does not go away and gets worse over time
• it is triggered suddenly by coughing, laughing, sneezing, changing posture, or physical effort
• you also have a sore scalp, or jaw pain while chewing, and you're over 50 years old
• it is new or getting worse, and you're dizzy, vomiting or feeling weak
• you are immunocompromised
• you are pregnant or have just given birth
• you have been in contact with carbon monoxide
• you have a blood clotting disorder (haemophilia) or are taking blood thinning medicine (like warfarin or apixaban)

If your doctor's chamber is closed, call the 16263 health line.

• a headache that is getting worse even with treatment
• headaches that come often or are painful enough to get in the way of your daily activities or make you miss work
• a headache that wakes you up when you're sleeping
• a headache if you have cancer now, or have had it in the past

If you're an adult with headaches, you can complete the self-help guide to check your symptoms and find out what to do next.

Your local pharmacy can give you:

• advice about headache
• treatments to help relieve headache

• rest
• take painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen
• drink plenty of fluids
• relax (if stress is the cause)
• take regular exercise

Tension type headache is the most common type of headache. It's the kind most of us think of as a normal, everyday headache. It feels like a constant ache on both sides of the head, as though a tight band has been stretched around it.

Usually, a tension type headache isn't bad enough to stop you doing your daily activities. It can last anywhere from 30 minutes to several days.

No one is sure what exactly causes tension type headache, but it has been linked to a few things:

• stress
• poor posture
• skipping meals
• dehydration

Most of the time, you can treat tension type headache with painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen. A few changes in daily habits may help too, for example:

• getting regular sleep
• reducing stress
• staying well hydrated

Migraine headache is less common than tension type headache. You usually feel it as a moderate to severe throbbing pain at the front or side of the head. Some people have other symptoms too, like:

• nausea
• vomiting
• increased sensitivity to light or sound

A migraine headache can stop you doing your normal daily activities. Without treatment, it usually lasts at least a couple of hours. Some people find they need to stay in bed for days at a time.

Cluster headache is a rare type of headache. It comes in clusters of short headaches, one every day, for a month or two, and usually around the same time of year. The pain is very bad and affects only one side of the head, most often around the eye. You may also feel restless, or notice other symptoms such as:

• watering or red eye
• blocked or runny nose

These symptoms happen on the same side of the head as the pain.

Painkillers you can buy without a prescription, like paracetamol and ibuprofen, don't usually ease the symptoms of cluster headache. Your doctor can prescribe treatments to ease the pain and help prevent further attacks.

If you take painkillers often, you can end up with chronic daily headache. It usually happens in people who already get frequent tension type headache or migraine. It can also happen if you take painkillers often for some other condition.

So try to cut down the number of days you take painkillers, to avoid this problem. Normally, you shouldn't take painkillers on more than 10 days every month.

Medication overuse headache usually gets better a few weeks after you stop the medicine causing it. The pain may get worse for a few days before it starts to improve, though.

If you get headaches often and you're taking painkillers on a regular basis, speak to your doctor.

Headaches, and migraine in particular, are often linked to periods. Contraception, menopause and pregnancy can also trigger them.

If you get a headache around your period, it doesn't mean something is wrong with your hormones. But do speak to a doctor if the headache is severe around your period, or if it starts after you begin hormonal treatment.

Headache can have other causes too, including:

• drinking too much alcohol
• a head injury or concussion
• a cold or flu
• temporomandibular disorders, which are problems affecting the 'chewing' muscles and joints between the lower jaw and the base of the skull
• sinusitis, which is inflammation of the lining of the sinuses
• carbon monoxide poisoning
• sleep apnoea, a condition where the walls of the throat relax and narrow during sleep, interrupting normal breathing