Brain pain

Brain pain, regardless of the accompanying symptoms, first of all requires immediate consultation with a doctor. Of all the existing causes, about five percent are organic lesions of the nervous system. Being able to identify these causes in time is one of the most important tasks of any specialist.

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What diseases cause brain pain?

Benign intracranial hypertension

It most often affects females and is characterized by high cerebrospinal fluid pressure without symptoms of organic damage to the central nervous system or hydrocephalus. Associated symptoms include nausea accompanied by vomiting, unsteady gait, and pain in the eyeballs. In the initial stage of the disease, the pain in the brain may not be very strong, but it increases over time, is diffuse, is accompanied by a feeling of distension, pain in the forehead, and intensifies at night or after sleep, as well as when tilting the head, coughing or sneezing, with sudden movements, tinnitus, and double vision. Patients are prescribed a therapeutic diet with minimal salt content and weight correction. Normalization of intracranial pressure is achieved with the help of drugs that promote active removal of water from the gastrointestinal tract and inhibit the secretion of cerebrospinal fluid. With timely measures, the prognosis is usually favorable.

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Hydrocephalus

Hydrocephalus is an excessive accumulation of fluid in the cavities and spinal canal caused by a disturbance in its circulation, absorption or production. In addition to pain, nausea is observed, accompanied by vomiting. The main manifestations are an increase in the ventricles of the brain, a decrease in the density of the brain substance as a result of it being saturated with cerebrospinal fluid, and a narrowing of the subarachnoid spaces.

In the acute stage of the disease, drugs are prescribed to reduce intracranial pressure (glycerin, furosemide, mannitol), a puncture is performed in the fontanelle area to remove some amount of cerebrospinal fluid. Further treatment consists of general strengthening therapy, anti-inflammatory drugs, salt-pine baths, and as an adjuvant therapy, it is possible to use diacarb with potassium preparations. If there is no positive effect from conservative treatment, the patient should be sent to the inpatient department.

Intracranial infections

• Meningitis is an inflammatory process in the membranes (viral or bacterial). Complications of meningitis may include hearing loss, development of epilepsy, mental retardation in childhood, and death is possible in the absence of timely assistance, sometimes within a few hours. The main symptoms are very high temperature, intense pain in the brain, nausea, vomiting, photophobia, and a rash may sometimes appear on the skin. In case of viral meningitis, the patient is prescribed plenty of fluids, analgesics, and antipyretics. In case of bacterial meningitis, antibiotic therapy is prescribed (most often, penicillin), corticosteroids, and drugs that normalize the water-salt balance.
• Encephalitis is a pathology of the brain that leads to its inflammation. It is provoked by infectious, allergic or toxic factors, accompanied by high temperature, dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract and upper respiratory tract, the patient is bothered by pain in the brain, photophobia, epileptic seizures, severe fogginess or complete loss of consciousness. Treatment is prescribed depending on the type and form of the disease, is carried out strictly in a hospital setting under continuous medical supervision.
• An abscess is a purulent inflammation of the tissues of the central nervous system. Risk factors for the development of the disease include lung pathology, heart defects, heart valve damage, open craniocerebral injuries, and immunodeficiency. Treatment is carried out in the neurosurgical department, antibacterial drugs, nootropics, vitamin therapy are prescribed, and osteoplastic craniotomy with removal of the abscess is performed.

Stroke

A stroke is a very serious and dangerous circulatory disorder that can lead to the death of brain tissue. One of the most common causes of a stroke is atherosclerosis and high blood pressure, which results in a blockage of an artery by a blood clot, hemorrhage in the brain. A stroke causes stabbing pain in the brain, nausea, vomiting, possible seizures, loss of consciousness. Medical care for a stroke should be provided immediately, the patient should be put to bed, provide maximum access to oxygen, and call an ambulance immediately.

Brain pain with any accompanying symptoms requires immediate medical attention, as this is a rather dangerous and alarming symptom that requires careful, timely and qualified diagnostics in order to differentiate accompanying symptoms to exclude such dangerous diseases as tumor, meningitis, stroke, etc.

How to recognize brain pain?

To differentiate pain correctly, it is necessary to consider the following parameters: whether the pain is temporary or permanent, whether it starts suddenly or gradually increases, whether the pain is long-lasting or short-term, dull or intense. It is also necessary to consider the provoking factors: what causes the pain in the brain (sudden change in weather conditions, menstruation, sexual intercourse, coughing, sleep, alcohol consumption, stressful situation, change in head position, etc.), what additional symptoms accompany it.

Alarming clinical manifestations include pain in the brain that occurs suddenly and is strictly one-sided, characterized by a transition from periodic pain to constant pain, progressing and not amenable to traditional treatment methods.