Headaches By: Gabie Gomez

Why does my head hurt ????? Headaches are a neurological complaint that can be insignificant or prodromal. The exact mechanism of head pain is unknown Headaches happen outside the skull in the nerves, blood vessels, and muscles that cover the head and neck. They do not arise from the skull and brain tissue. Types of headaches are: Vascular, tension and tract -inflammatory

Types of Headaches Vascular: Migraine, cluster, and hypertensive. They are thought to involve abnormal function of the blood vessels of the brain. Tension: May arise from psychological problems of stress or from medical problems. Caused by tension in the muscles of the neck and head, which can be brought on by a variety of emotional and physical stressors. Traction-inflammatory: Caused by infection of intracranial causes, occlusive vascular problems and temporal arthritis. They occur if the pain-sensitive to parts of the head are pulled, stretched, or displaced (toothache, earaches, sinusitis).

Assessment Vascular: Throbbing or pulsating feeling on one side of your head moderate to severe headache intensity worsening of your headache with routine physical activity nausea vomiting, or both sensitivity to light and noise, and sometimes smells Cluster: starts suddenly and without warning attack may begin with a sensation of pressure in the eye or temple excruciating pain reaches a peak within 15 minutes attacks usually last less than two hours Traction-inflammatory: throbbing headache fever loss of appetite some patients experience blurring or loss of vision

How is it diagnosed? Subjective Data: How severe and frequent your headaches last and if there's a pattern or change over time. Physical examination Examination of the back of the eye, called a funduscopic exam, can give your doctor a sense of any increase in pressure inside your brain Blood tests or imaging tests, such as a CAT scan or MRI of the brain are done to rule out medical problems that might be causing your headaches, especially if they're diagnosed as migraines.

Ways to alleviate the pain Smoking, alcohol use, specific foods, and other factors that seem to trigger headaches should be avoided. Administer analgesics (aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen) Triptans act on the receptors in the extracerebral vessels that become dilated during a migraine attack, also relieve nausea, vomiting and photophobia. Narcotics Surgery Sphenopalatine Ganglion (SPG) Blockade. This is a neural blockade that involves the injection of a nerve-blocking agent into a cluster of nerves along the skull behind the face.

Nursing Interventions Provide quite environment. Administer analgesic as ordered. Provide comfort measures Apply cold packs to the forehead or base of the skull. Lay in a dark room with minimal auduitory stimulation Identify triggering factors that worsen the pain ( climate changes, allergies, menstruation).

Continue……………… Avoid Alcohol Maintain regular sleeping patterns Don’t skip meals Regular physical exercise prevent headaches. Pressure applied to the temporal arteries may relive the pain

P rognosis Headaches are not life-threatening and usually cause no permanent structural changes. However, they are chronic and may be painful enough to be debilitating during an attack, which may interfere with work or lifestyle. Occasionally, the pain may be severe enough to drive some individuals to attempt suicide.

The End