If you have a headache every other day, would an analgesic do? It is quite common that we dart to a drug store for that well-advertised analgesic, swallow one and leave it to do the rest.
Headache could be more than a mere ache in the head. “Ninety per cent of the headaches are primary, such as ones caused by severe stress or migraine.
The rest are secondary: symptomatic of some underlying condition such as tumour, aneurysm (bulging and bursting of blood vessel in the brain), meningitis or even a vision defect such as glaucoma,” says neurologist at Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences in Kozhikode V.V. Ashraf.
“If the frequency of headache is high even in the primary type migraine cases, one should consult a doctor and take only the prescribed drug. No word of mouth prescription from non-medical persons,” says Dr. Ashraf.
Doctors have always been critical of an impulsively pill-popping population’s faith in the drug dispenser than in the qualified doctor. This is more so in the case of headache. Aneurysm, especially the burst, triggers a headache with a hammering effect.
The person suffering from this has to be rushed to the hospital for an interventional procedure of putting a coil around the affected area or a clip on the artery to stop the bleeding.
“One has to treat the tumour in the brain, rather than the symptom (headache) alone,” Dr. Ashraf points out. “A sudden severe headache, which we call red flashing headache, should be diagnosed properly and immediately.” The problem of self-medication is common among the primary cases, and the risk is of medication overuse headache, or rebound headache. The problem worsens from episodic to chronic because of frequent intake of drugs.
Drugs with a combination of paracetamol, propyphenazone and anhydrous caffeine are freely available under various brand names.
Drug overuse can cause analgesic nephropathy, a condition in which kidney functions are affected. Does the headache pill actually act directly on the problem, at least in primary cases? Actually, it only interrupts the pain message from the brain.
Similarly, there are many types of pain balm that people believe have curative property. They are only counter-irritants.
(Reporting by
K.V. Prasad)
