When Your Headache is Caused by Your Neck

Sometimes migraineurs will experience headaches that don’t respond to migraine treatment. When this happens frequently, doctors may consider the possibility of another headache disorder. One such disorder originates with problems in the upper cervical spine. The problem isn’t actually in the head or brain; it’s in the neck. It’s called “referred pain.” The problem is in the neck, but the pain is felt in the head.
What is it?

It’s called cervicogenic headache (CGH) and is classified as a secondary headache because there is a known cause. Many times CGH will follow a specific pattern that gives clues to your doctor about where to start looking for the problem. For example, neck pain that radiates to the lower jaw or over the top of the head and into the eye may indicated the problem lies in the muscles, joints, or nerves of the neck. The pain from CGH is usually not throbbing.

Symptoms also include tightness of muscles in the back, neck, shoulder, and upper chest. Look up these muscle groups for a better understanding: upper trapezius, scalene, levator scapulae, sternocleidomastoid, pectoralis major and minor, as well as the sub-occipital extensors.1

As you can see, a lot of symptoms overlap with other headache disorders. It takes a true headache specialist to determine if the problem is CGH, Migraine, Hemicrania Continua, or Occipital Neuralgia. To paint an even more complicated picture, most patients with Chronic Daily Headache meet the diagnostic criteria for more than one headache disorder. CGH typically does not respond to the same treatments as migraine. So, when migraine-specific treatments fail, CGH may be considered as an alternate diagnosis.1, 2

Learn more here - http://migraine.com/blog/some-headaches-are-caused-by-neck-problem

Click to expand...