Headache disorders

Headaches are among the most common disorders of the nervous system.
It has been estimated that 47 % of the adult population has a headache at least once in the past year in general.
Headaches are associated with personal and social burden of pain , disability, quality of life and financial cost damaged .
A minority of people with headache disorders worldwide are properly diagnosed by a health professional as .
The headache was underestimated , undervalued and under-treated worldwide.
What are head pain disorders ?

Headaches are among the most common disorders of the nervous system. Is a headache , tension-type painful headache and deactivation of a small number of primary headache that is, the property of migraine and cluster headache . Headaches can also be caused by, or be secondary to a long list of other conditions , such as medication overuse headache.

What are the frequency of headaches are disorders ?

Overall , an estimated adult prevalence of current headache (symptomatic at least once in the last year ) is 47%. Half to three-quarters of adults aged 18-65 in the world have had headaches in the past year , and among them, more than 10 % reported migraine. The headaches 15 or more days a month affects 1.7-4 % of the adult population in the world. Despite regional variations , headaches are a global problem that affects people of all ages , races , social classes and geographical areas.

What is the weight due to headache disorders ?

Not only headache is painful, but also disabling. In the Global Burden of Disease Study, updated in 2004 , migraine alone was found to represent 1.3 % of years lived with disability (YLD ) .

Headache disorders impose a burden on patients whose personal suffering , impaired quality of life and financial cost . Repeated attacks of headache, and often in constant fear of the next one, damage family life , social life and employment. The long-term effort to address a chronic headache may also predispose individuals to other diseases. For example , depression is three times more common in people with migraine or severe headaches than in healthy individuals.

Types of headaches

Migraine , tension headache headache and drug abuse - are important to public health because they are responsible for the high population of disability and disease.

migraine
A primary headache .
It usually begins at puberty and affects more people 35 years and 45 years.
It is caused by the activation of a defense mechanism in the brain leads to the release of inflammatory substances pain around the nerves and blood vessels in the head .
Migraine is a recurrent , often life-long and is characterized by attacks.
The attacks include features such as
headache of moderate or severe intensity ;
nausea ( most typical ) ;
unilateral and / or the quality of the pulse ;
aggravated by routine physical activity ;
with the duration of hours to 2-3 days;
excitation frequency anywhere from once a year to once a week , and
children , attacks are usually short and more pronounced abdominal symptoms .
Type of tension headache (TTH )
TTH is the most common primary headache disorder .
Episodic TTH was reported by more than 70 % of some populations , chronic tension headache affects 1-3% of adults.
TTH often begins in adolescence , which affects three women for every two men.
Its mechanism may or associated with musculoskeletal disorders of the neck due to stress.
Episodic TTH attacks usually last a few hours, but may persist for several days.
Chronic TTH can be continuous and is much more disabling than episodic TTH .
This headache is described as a pressure or tension, like a band around the head, sometimes extending to or from the neck.
Cluster headache ( CH)
A primary headache .
CH is relatively rare , affecting less than 1 in 1,000 adults , affecting six men for every woman.
Most people are older than 20 years of development CH .
It is characterized by recurrent pain , frequent brief but extremely severe head pain associated around the eyes with tearing and redness , runny or blocked the affected side and the eyelid may droop.
CH was episodic and chronic forms.
Medication - overuse headache (MOH )
Ministry of Health is caused by chronic and excessive consumption of drugs to treat headaches .
MS pain is the most common side head.
It can affect up to 5% of some populations , women more than men .
Ministry of Health is oppressive , persistent and often at its worst in the morning.
Social and economic burden of headache

Headaches are a public health problem due to the large amount of account of disability and financial costs associated with the company. As headaches are the most problematic in the most productive years ( late teens and 50) , the estimated costs to society - mainly lost work hours and lost productivity - are enormous. In the UK, for example, about 25 million work or school days are lost each year due to migraine alone , the financial cost is offset by TTH and chronic daily headache combined . The headache is high among the causes of consultation by a physician, a third of all neurological consultations were headache in a survey.

However, many who are concerned about the headaches do not receive effective care. For example , the United States and the UK, only half of those identified with migraine had seen a doctor because of headaches in the previous 12 months , and two thirds were correctly diagnosed . Most were exclusively through counter medications .

treatment

Proper treatment of headache requires the training of health professionals , an accurate diagnosis and recognition of the condition, appropriate treatment profitable drug , changing simple lifestyle , and patient education . The major classes of drugs to treat headache include: analgesics, anti-migraine drugs and prophylactic drugs . However, many people with headache disorders are not diagnosed and treated.

Barriers to effective care

The lack of knowledge among health professionals is the major clinical obstacle. Worldwide, an average of only four hours of undergraduate medical education dedicated to teaching about the headache . A minority of people with headache disorders worldwide are professionally diagnosed , 40% for those with migraine and tension-type headache , while the Ministry of Health is only 10% .

The ignorance extends to the general public . Headaches are not perceived by the public as serious as they are for the most episodic , not cause death, and not contagious . Consultation rates in developed countries may indicate that many patients are not aware that there are effective treatments. 50 % of people with headaches are estimated to self-treatment .

Many governments seeking to limit spending on health, do not recognize the significant burden of headache in society. They do not recognize that the direct costs of treating headache are small compared to the huge indirect savings that could be made (eg, by reducing lost workdays ) if the resources for the treatment of pain were allocated head.

WHO response

These expenses obvious call to action . WHO recognizes this, and is a member of the non-governmental organization to reduce the load on the global campaign against headache. This initiative began in 2004 and aims not only to raise awareness of the headache , but also to improve the quality of care and access to headaches worldwide . WHO has published the Atlas of headache in 2011 that describes the load due to disturbance and resources to reduce headaches .