Carl Billian, M.D., M.S. Coosa Medical Group Headaches are extremely common in the general population. Most are benign, such as tension headaches or migraine headaches. Headaches may also be symptoms of serious illness, such as brain tumor, stroke, meningitis, encephalitis, brain hemorrhage, increased pressure in the head, infections elsewhere in the body or blood chemistry disturbances. When evaluating a person with a new type of headache, the first question is whether the headache is benign or is a symptom of an illness that needs to be treated. The most common types of benign headaches are tension headaches and migraine headaches.
Many medications can treat both successfully.
The pain is steady and comes on gradually or is continuous. Migraine headaches, conversely, come in episodes. The pain may involve only half of the head and is pulsating. It is accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light or sound. Some migraines are even preceded by stroke-like symptoms, which wear off as the headache comes on.