Generally, most of the people would not consider a headache to be a serious illness. However, if one experiences headaches fifteen days or more in a month, the individual may be suffering from a condition referred to as chronic headache or chronic daily headache (CDH). It is claimed that chronic headache condition affects about 4%-5% of the general adult population.

The chronic headache condition can be classified into a number of sub-categories like chronic migraine, chronic tension type, new daily persistent and hemicrania continua. Furthermore, it should be noted that each of these subtypes may display its own set of signs and symptoms while the common symptom displayed by all is the persisting pain in the areas of the head. Migraine type of chronic headaches may display symptoms including nausea, vomiting, light and sound sensitivity and a severe headache affecting just one side of the head with a pulsating or throbbing sensation. Individuals suffering from chronic tension type headaches may suffer from symptoms such as headaches that hurt both sides of the head and slight to moderate pain which is generally described as pressing or tightening.

New daily persistent headaches, a subtype of chronic headache condition has the unique symptom where headaches that appear suddenly and continues for nearly three days. The headache appears on both sided of the head and is generally described by patients to be of tightening or pressing sensation rather than throbbing. In addition to these subtypes, hemicranias continua is also categorized as a component of the chronic headache condition with symptoms that are rather more noticeable than the other subtypes. Patients affected by this type of chronic headache condition might show symptoms like headaches that only crop up on one side of the head daily and persistently and certain areas like the eye lid might show some swelling, the eye on the affected side would appear red and they patients might experience nasal congestion also.

Upto now, a cure has not been found for chronic headache conditions even though some medical and non medical methods are available to reduce the suffering of the patients. Relaxation training, acupuncture, paracetamol, asprin and physical therapy are some of the treatment recommended in treating chronic headaches. Also, techniques like changes in the diet and psychological therapy are also being experimented as potential treatments for chronic headache conditions. According to many researches a combination of medicinal and non medicinal methods would be the most effective form of treatment.

Therefore, if you are suffering from chronic headaches it is vital to get medical attention as soon as possible. Early treatment could greatly help a patient though a definite cure is yet to be found.

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