Most people occasionally have headaches. However, if you get a headache on a regular basis, you may have chronic daily headaches. When a headache lasts for 15 days or more each month throughout a three-month period, it is considered chronic. 

Chronic headaches can affect both adults and children. They might become incapacitating and interfere with your daily routines. In this article, we will tell you everything you should know about chronic headaches.

What are chronic headaches?

The term "chronic daily headache" refers to a variety of headaches that might occur on a regular basis:

• Tension headache that feels like a tightening ring around your skull.
• Migraine episodes, feel like a severe throbbing headache on one or both sides of your head and are occasionally preceded by a group of symptoms known as aura.
• Cluster headache, which can recur on and off for weeks or months and produce intense pain on one side of your head, usually around or behind an eye.
• Hemicrania continua is a headache that happens on one side of your head on a regular basis and may feel comparable to a migraine.
• New daily chronic headache, characterized by headache pain that appears abruptly and persists every day for months without relief.

Symptoms of chronic headaches

The symptoms of a chronic headache might differ based on the type of headache you have. They include pain in the head, which can:

• Affect one or both sides of your brain
• Provide a pulsating, throbbing, or tightening sensation
• Range in severity from modest to extreme

Other signs and symptoms may include:

• Vomiting or nausea
• Sweating
• Light, sound, or scent sensitivity
• A runny or stuffy nose
• Tears or redness of the eyes
• Lightheadedness
• Feeling bad or anxious

Risk factors for chronic headaches

Chronic daily headache develops in people who have had a main headache condition in the past. Those who suffer from regular headaches are more likely to acquire the disorder. Other factors that raise the risk are:

• Female gender
• Hypotension in the arteries (low blood pressure in the arteries)
• Psychiatric conditions, especially severe depression and anxiety
• Insomnia
• Obesity
• Caffeine addiction
• Stress
• Cutaneous allodynia (pain arising from triggers that would not normally cause pain, like brushing the hair)
• Snoring

Diagnosis of chronic headaches

Your doctor will most likely evaluate you for symptoms of disease, infection, or neurological disorders, as well as ask about your headache history. If the source of your headaches is still unknown, your doctor may recommend imaging tests, such as a CT scan or MRI, to rule out an underlying medical issue.

Treatment options for chronic headaches

Treatment options for an underlying disease usually relieve chronic headaches. If no such disorder is discovered, therapy focuses on pain management.  Prevention measures differ based on the type of headache you get and whether you are using too many medications. If you take pain relievers more than three days per week, your doctor may advise you to wean yourself off these medications.

When you're ready to start preventative treatment, your doctor may advise you to:

• Antidepressants
• Beta-blockers
• Medication to prevent seizures
• NSAIDs
• Botulinum toxin

Other therapy, sometimes in conjunction with drugs, may be recommended by your doctor. Non-medication treatments include:

• Therapy
• Biofeedback
• Nerve stimulation
• Acupuncture
• Massage
• Acupuncture

Prevention of chronic headaches

The use of prophylactic drugs for chronic headaches (without medication overuse) focuses on decreasing the frequency of acute attacks, lessening the impairment experienced by persons during an attack, and reducing the usage of acute medication. The majority of the drugs are widely used and thought to be effective in clinical practice. 

However, there is a PBS-licensed scientifically proven injectable therapy that is helpful for prevention. The statistically significant reduction in headache days, severity, and improvement in quality of life. This treatment has no sedative qualities and does not interact with other drugs.