During any given year, 90% of people suffer from headaches. Only 1% of people that present to the Emergency Room with a headache have a serious underlying problem. The most common types of headaches are tension type and migraines. Migraines tend to present on one side of the head and sometimes are accompanied by nausea, vision change, or sensitivity to noise and light. Tension headaches feel like a tight band around the head. Sometimes headaches could stem from other problems such as tight muscles in the neck (cervicogenic). Rarely headaches may be due to more serious underlying problems such as dehydration, hypertension, seizures, medication overuse, brain tumor, or stroke.
Seek immediate medical care if you experience any of the following: “worst headache of your life”, worsening or unrelenting headache, nausea and vomiting, fever, stiff neck, weakness in the any part of your body, seizures, change in speech or vision, or associated head or neck trauma.