Tia,
to soothe your fears some, fewer than 10%
of headaches are caused by something
scary, like a tumor or infection. Mri or
ct scans are used to detect those. Spinal
taps are sometimes used, but brain imaging
can show the same problems.
Ache (the american council for headache
education) has a page describing the
different types of headache, with a focus
on the similarities and differences
between tension headaches and migraines:
http://www.Ache
net.Org/understanding/differ.Php.
It's certainly worth trying different otc
meds. People with headache respond to
different meds differently, whether they
are painkillers, migraine abortives or
preventives. For example, advil helps my
headaches, but tylenol doesn't.
It's great that your doctor did a ct scan,
but there are treatments for tension
headache other than "relax." the mayo
clinic has fantastic info on tension
headache and possible treatments at
http://www.Mayo
clinic.Com/invoke.Cfm?Id=ds00304. Ask
your doctor to consider some of the
medications on the list. If you can't get
him or her to consider medications for
your headache, I recommend seeing a
neurologist or a primary care doc with
experience with headache patients.
Good luck.
-kerrie
