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| Muscle Contraction and Tension Headaches |
| These are continuous and generalized pains felt from front to back or all around the head and are generally less severe than migraines. The pain is usually a dull ache that has been described as feeling like a tight band around the head. A tension headache can be simply a feeling of pressure or severe enough to cause painful knots in neck and scalp muscles. While emotional stress and letdown after such stress are the most common causes, arthritis of the joints of the neck may also contribute. Tension headaches alone are also often experienced by migraine sufferers, and a combined form of headache can also occur. |
| Tension headache is named not only for the role of stress in triggering the pain, but also for the contraction of neck, face and scalp muscles brought on by stressful events. Tension headache is a severe but temporary form of muscle contraction headache. The headache usually disappears after the period of stress is over. |
| By contrast, chronic muscle contraction headaches can last for weeks, months and sometimes years. The pain of these headaches is often described as a tight band around the head or a feeling that the head and neck are in a cast. The pain is steady and is usually felt on both sides of the head. Chronic muscle contraction headaches can cause sore scalps; even combing one's hair can be painful. |
| Occasionally, muscle contraction headaches are accompanied by nausea, vomiting and blurred vision, but there is no preheadache syndrome as with migraine. Muscle contraction headaches have not been linked to hormones or foods, as has migraine, nor is there a strong hereditary connection. |
| For many people, chronic muscle contraction headaches are caused by depression and anxiety. These people tend to get their headaches in the early morning or evening when |
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