Tension Headaches
Criteria For Diagnosis of Infrequent Tension Type Headaches
- pressing or tightening (non-pulsating) quality - mild or moderate intensity - not aggravated by routine physical activity (walking, stairs) 4. Both of the following: - absence of nausea or vomiting - no more than one of: photophobia or phonophobia 5. Cannot be better accounted for by another ICHD-3 diagnosis |
Headaches are:
- Infrequent tension-type headaches can be associated with pericranial tenderness upon manual palpation or the absence of pericranial tenderness |
Criteria For Diagnosis of Frequent Episodic Tension Type Headaches
- pressing or tightening (non-pulsating) quality - mild or moderate intensity - not aggravated by routine physical activity (walking, stairs) 4. Both of the Following: - absence of nausea or vomiting - no more than 1 of: photophobia or phonophonia 5. Cannot be better accounted for by another ICHD-3 diagnosis |
Headaches are:
- Frequent episodic tension-type headaches can be associated with pericranial tenderness upon manual palpation or the absence of pericranial tenderness |
Criteria For Diagnosis of Chronic Tension Type Headaches
- pressing or tightening (non-pulsating) quality - mild or moderate intensity - not aggravated by routine physical activity (walking, stairs) 4. Both of the following: - no more than one of: mild nausea, photophobia, or phonophobia - does not involve moderate or severe nausea or vomiting 5. Cannot be better accounted for by another ICHD-3 diagnosis |
Headaches are:
- Frequent episodic tension-type headaches can be associated with pericranial tenderness upon manual palpation or the absence of pericranial tenderness |
Probable Tension-Type Headaches
- A person who does not meet all the criteria for infrequent, frequent, or chronic tension-type headaches but meets one or more of the criteria and does not meet the criteria for another headache disorder.
Treatment
- Mobilization of cervical and upper thoracic spine in all directions
- Soft Tissue techniques
- Training of the neck flexor muscles to gain isometric strength
- instruct patient to pull chin in and hold this position for 10-20 seconds
- perform exercises 2x/day
- Postural correction to head, cervical, and thoracic spine
Emergency
Headache that is sudden, severe, or unusual