Headache

• For familiar, non-severe headache: drink enough, eat regularly and rest when you have a cold or flu. Ask a pharmacist about suitable pain relief. [1]
• If pain returns: note onset, duration, location, other symptoms and days using pain medicines. This helps a clinician recognize the pattern. [2]
• With new warning signs: sudden extremely severe pain, weakness, speech trouble or confusion needs emergency care; do not wait to finish a diary. [1]

Pressing or throbbing pain, nausea and light sensitivity offer clues; a pattern or pain score alone cannot diagnose the cause. [2]

Tension-type headache is often bilateral and pressing and is usually not aggravated by everyday activity. Migraine is more often moderate or severe, may throb and may include nausea or sensitivity to light and sound. Cluster headache causes severe one-sided pain around the eye, sometimes with tearing or nasal congestion on the same side. NICE describes these as clinical distinctions for people over 12, not a self-diagnosis checklist. Not every headache related to stress is tension-type headache. [2]

Too little fluid, missed meals, poor sleep, infection, eyesight problems or stress can play a part; triggers differ between people. If you use acute pain medicines often, note the number of days each month: frequent use over months can itself lead to medication-overuse headache. Discuss the pattern with a clinician rather than abruptly changing prescriptions. A headache by itself does not prove magnesium or another nutrient deficiency. [1][2]

Drink water, eat regularly and rest when you have a cold or flu. Ask a pharmacist whether paracetamol or ibuprofen is appropriate for you and follow its instructions, especially with other medicines, pregnancy or contraindications. Sleeping much more than usual is not necessarily helpful. Relaxation may help when tension worsens pain; it should not obscure warning signs. [1]

Record frequency, duration, severity, associated symptoms, possible triggers and every medicine used for relief. Note any relation to menstruation. NICE suggests recording at least eight weeks when a diary is being used to aid diagnosis; bring it to your appointment. Do not delay assessment of a new alarming symptom to finish a diary. [2]

See a clinician for regular headaches, increasing pain or failure of self-care. Seek prompt assessment for unexplained vomiting, visual or eye symptoms, jaw pain while eating with scalp tenderness, or headache triggered by coughing or exercise. Sudden maximal headache, new weakness, speech difficulty, confusion, seizures, fever with stiff neck or a headache after a recent head injury call for immediate emergency care (112 in the Netherlands, otherwise your local number); do not drive yourself. [1][2]