Acute & Chronic Headaches

These can be primary or secondary. The International Classification of Headache Disorders classifies headaches into several categories, including: migraine, tension type headaches, trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias, post-traumatic headaches, headaches attributed to cranial or cervical vascular disorders, among others. Depending on their etiology, headaches can be treated with a broad spectrum of medications with different mechanisms of action.

The purpose of these medications is either to prevent the headache from happening (prophylactic headache medication) or to stop the headache (abortive headache medication). These medications include: NSAIDs, anti-epilectics, beta-blockers, triptans, anti-depressants, ACE inhibitors, among others.

Another tool we use to treat headaches is nerve blocks. Headaches can respond to several nerve blocks, such as blocks in the following nerves: occipital nerve, trochlear nerve, and supraorbital nerve. The benefit of the nerve block as opposed to oral medications is that the former causes less systemic side effects and the frequency of therapy can be less.