Prognosis Of Headache
The Forecast Of Headaches
Prognosis means the likely outcome of a
disease. A person might be suffering from a headache since a prolonged
period of time. However, it is important to find out whether the
headache is actually a symptom of something more serious or some
underlying disorder or just a simple headache.
The common
headache is usually quite harmless. And about 90 % of the chronic
headache sufferers can be helped.
Although migraines are usually
harmless, they are recurrent and frustrating, interfering with your
daily life. Most patients do quite well with medications but in rare
cases when these don't work, hospitalization may be necessary. Severe
migraine may result in a stroke, a very rare complication.
Cluster headaches are also not life-threatening and cause no
permanent structural damages. But the pain can be debilitating. In fact,
it is sometimes so harsh that it is labeled as suicide headache. It
interferes with the daily lifestyle. Medications and surgery for it may
cause severe side-effects like permanent muscle weakness and decreased
sensation. It may also result in Horner's syndrome which has severe
cosmetic side-effects.
Tension headaches respond well to
treatment and are not dangerous, although they can be quite annoying. It
is necessary that a tension headache is diagnosed properly. If it is
misdiagnosed, then you might be missing out on symptoms of something
more serious. Overuse of analgesic medicines used to cure these
headaches, may result in rebound headaches.
Hence, daily
headaches are usually not harmful but it is extremely important that
they should be diagnosed properly. But in the case of other
complications like brain tumors, aneurysms and other brain infections,
potentially life-threatening situations may arise.