Tension Headache or Neualgia?

[doreen]

I have in the past gotten these strange headaches.  They affect my whole head where my scalp hurts to touch.  My head is extemely painful so I massage my scalp only to find out it makes it 10 times worse.  I get pressure behind my eyes.  I feel like I'm in a fog, lightheaded, dizzy at times.  I might have this for weeks at a time!!!  Sometimes it even hurts to put my head down on a pillow.  I get this feeling in my neck - and it sometimes tingles.  I've had numerous MRI's in the past on head, spine for MS because I've had symptoms of tingling in the past.  All are negative.  I take Advil or Motrin for the pain.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  My eyes feel extremely strained.  Do you think these are tension headaches, or some sort of nueralgia?  How do I get rid of them?

[Bobbie]

I have had tension headaches for years; what has finally really helped me is biofeedback along with  reapeated listening to a tape titled Letting Go of Stress  by Emmet Miller and Steve
Halpern.    Good luck!!  We sure get some challenging life situations to deal wtih.

[kerry]

Doreen,

I'm going thru a much more complex pain syndrome, however-
Do yourself a favor, get to an Osteopath or a good Physical Therapist (one who specializes in headaches) I've had good
results with those symptoms you discribe. Consider what you do for a living, is it stressing your neck? Do you exercise
properly? Do you excerise at all? I could go on for days here- the neck is very complex but the nerves coming out
of C-1 and C-2 go to the back of the head. I got a great education from my PT. And she did help, alot. Do this and
get a massage once a week. An occasion Xanax (I take 1/2 mg maybe two times a week a bedtime). Good luck!

[CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS]

Dear Doreen:

Sorry to hear about your headaches.  What does your neurologist think that you have?  The good news is that your MRI of the brain and C-spine are normal.  That rules out many worrisome things.  Do you headaches seem to cluster together and occur at specific times in the day, week, or year and are made worse by alcohol during the headache?  If so, you might have cluster headache, although the description of the headache would not be classic for cluster.  If the headache is worse latter on in the day then you might have tension headache.  Since the MRI of the c-spine was normal and your whole head hurts, I don't think you have occipital cephalgia.  The treatment for cluster is melantoin and calcium channel blockers, and for tension headaches is a variety of treatments but the initial treatments are trial with NSAIDs such as you are currently doing.  There are a few people using botox injections with great success in the treatment of tension headaches.  You might want to see if your a candidate for such treatment.

Sincerely,

CCF Neuro MD