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Treatment for head pain
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
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Treatment of headaches should be aimed at achieving the following goals:
- Reduction of disease symptoms, mainly the intensity of headache.
- Reduction in the degree of loss of physical and mental capacity.
- Improving the patient's quality of life.
It is necessary to follow two basic principles of treatment:
- Staged therapy. It consists in the fact that after the diagnosis of primary headache is established, the patient is on the first step of the therapeutic ladder. If a satisfactory result is achieved with first-line therapy (ordinary simple analgesics), it continues. If not, then second-line therapy is prescribed (a combination of analgesics). However, quite often patients who have failed after the first attempts at treatment come to the conclusion that the doctor can no longer help them, and refuse further treatment. If the second-line therapy satisfies the patient, then the treatment continues. Otherwise, third-line treatment is undertaken (specific antimigraine agents).
- Treatment stratification. Consists of stratifying attacks. Patients with mild attacks that do not interfere with their activities can be treated with simple analgesics. Those who suffer from severe attacks are prescribed specific medications with proven effectiveness.
However, therapy that is effective in one circumstance and for one patient may be completely useless for another. It is necessary to avoid standard approaches to therapy and strive to at least to some extent to individualize treatment, taking into account the psychological state of the patient and his attitude to the disease. Constant monitoring, evaluation of treatment results, therapeutic correction are necessary conditions for safe and effective achievement of the desired result.
Therapeutic goals for treating headaches: identify the cause of headaches, prescribe etiopathogenetic or symptomatic treatment.
Non-drug methods of treating headaches: use of relaxation techniques, psychotherapy.
Drug treatment of headache: non-narcotic analgesics with age-appropriate dosage.
Referral to specialist: headache lasting more than 3 days; headache with neurological complications; new-onset headache lasting more than 1 week; chronic recurrent headache if no improvement; suspected organic headache.