Question: Husband suffering headaches for 3 years following accident.
Answer:
Full Question:
My husband has been suffering from headaches
for about 3 years now, after a moderate closed-head injury resulting from a
motorcycle accident. Shortly after his recovery from the accident he also began
seeing a chiropractor, who performed neck manipulations on him on 2 different
occasions. My husband has since requested that he no longer do the
manipulations.
He has seen our family physician for help, as these headaches have become a real
annoyance for him. Our family doctor diagnosed him with Classic Migraines, but
my husband's headache doesn't fit the profile, going from the information
provided us via a handout on migraines. The headaches will occur 3-4 times a
week, and always wake him from a sound sleep around 2AM. The pain is located at
the base of his skull on the right side, where the head and neck meet
(coincidently this is the exact point where the blood pooled from his head
injury). If he doesn't take something right away, he's stuck with the pain
through the following day; but if he takes something, it goes away, no problem.
He describes the pain as dull and annoying, but not debilitating (but close to
it).
Can vascular migraines manifest themselves in any other region of the head other
than the forehead/eye/temple region? Has or family doctor made the right
diagnosis?
Thank you for your time, Melissa
Answer:
Dear Melissa;
I should write a book on this topic as I have (probably) one the very few dedicated brain injury practices in Texas. Your family doctor, like most physicians, is well meaning but undereducated about TBI. Oddly enough, post-concussional headaches DO behave like Migraines and usually respond to triptans, considered the most Migraine-specific agents. You need to call the Brain Injury society in your state and find out who does the best work on post-concussional symptoms, including Migraines. And yes, so-called "vascular" headaches can begin or occur in any part of the head.
Good luck,
Teri Robert and John Claude Krusz
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Published May 8, 2006
