Headaches are an extremely common problem and will affect up to 80% of Americans. The most common type of headache is the Tension-Type headache and the next most common are migraine headaches. Migraine headaches affect over 28 million Americans with females outnumbering males at least 2 to 1.

Headaches can essentially be divided into two broad categories, primary headaches and secondary headaches. Primary headaches are ones in which there is no other disease that is present that is causing the headache. Primary headaches include migraine headache, Tension-Type headache, cluster headache, chronic daily headache and analgesic rebound headache. These far and away outnumber the so called secondary headaches which are caused by a different disease such as a headache one might experience from sinusitis or the occasional headache that is due to a brain hemorrhage etc. The primary headache such as migraine and Tension-Type headaches are often called benign headaches but these can certainly become quite difficult for patients and even sometimes fairly disabling. The secondary headaches often require emergency or urgent attention and the concerning symptoms regarding those headaches will be discussed further on the section of when to call one’s doctor. In the following section there will be a brief description regarding the different types of primary headache. While they each have a separate description, it is not uncommon that patients can have characteristics that cross between various headache types or actually have different headaches at different times that fall into different categories.

Tension Headaches
Listen to our podcast on tension headaches and learn to soothe those headaches away.

Headaches: Types of Headaches
Headaches: Causes
Headaches: Contributing Factors
Headache Evaluation
Headache Prevention
Headache Treatment
Headaches: Women's Issues
Headaches: When to Call the Doctor