Pain in head

Introduction

There are several types of head pain or headaches: organic and non organic and they are different by causes. Organic head pains are serious and they are often symptoms of some physical problems and they may be brain tumors, meningitis, brain injury, brain abscesses and aneurysm. Non organic types of head pain may not be signs of some life threatening disease but they are very unpleasant and if they persist you should pay attention to them as well.

Symptoms that may indicate organic cause of your headache and need for medical attention may be occurrence of seizures or convulsions visual problems accompanied with headaches head pain in combination with loss of coordination or balance slurred speech or difficulty to speak severe sudden or intense head pain and head pain accompanied with muscular weakness or numbness mental confusion loss of consciousness or violent mood swings.

Causes of head pain

As we said before, 95% of headaches are non organic caused. As for the other 5%, their causes are organic and could indicate some of several very serious disorders. Here is a short description of possible organic causes of head pain;

Brain abscess

A brain abscess is caused by infection of the ears or start of the nasal cavity. Cause of infection is bacteria or funguses which enters the brain tissue where they form a solid mass made from dead cells white blood cells or other matter. The inflamed mass puts pressure on the rest of the brainresulting in head pain.

Brain injuries

This type of injury may occur in cases when some object penetrates the skull. Symptoms of brain injury varies from severe to mild and some of them may be sensory problems seizures, mental agitation, confusion, dizziness, loss of coordination, vomiting and nausea, dilated pupils, etc, also severe brain injuries may cause long term problems like nerve and brain damage coma, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.

Brain tumors and headaches

Unfortunately not all brain tumors causes head pain. Slow progressing tumors may only cause dull headache sometimes which can be easily mistaken for normal headache. In cases of steady deep and aching head pain there is a probability that it id caused by brain tumor. Symptoms of it may be loose of mental awareness difficulty to speak or swallow mental confusion sudden loss of coordination etc.

Encephalitis, Meningitis and head pain

Meningitis is inflammation of membrane that surround the brain and symptoms of it may be throbbing and severe head pain that are spread through entire head, fever, vomiting, nausea, etc.

Encephalitis is a rare form of brain tissue inflammation, and symptoms of it may be confusion, drowsiness, fever, bulging fontanels in infants, etc. encephalitis may cause respiratory arrest coma or death.