Often a headache will be made worse by moving the neck. You may find that your patients will always want to sit on one side of an auditorium or a movie theatre for that very reason, because a specific motion will bring on the headache. Often the examiner can actually find tenderness over certain sites in the occipital and suboccipital region. The range of motion typically is diminished as well. Usually there will be some pain in the shoulder and trapezius area.
Some researchers demand that the diagnosis be confirmed by blocks.
We will be talking a little bit about that. With a one-sided head disease problem, the pain is typically moderate, can be severe, usually is nonthrobbing and described as lancinating. This episode can be of varying duration and typically it is a fluctuating syndrome. This is not a headache that is typically very responsive to Indocin or the usual migraine medications. Usually this is women who have this and quite often there is a history of trauma to the area.