Headache

• Pain

Chronicle

2023

Headache in the world affects one in five people

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a tense-type headache affects 1.89 billion people worldwide by the end of 2023, or about one in five people on the planet. This type of malaise accounts for almost 90% of all cases of headache.

Tense-type headache affects 1.89 billion people worldwide by the end of 2023

A tense-type headache is more common in women. The average age of occurrence of such pains is 25-30 years. According to the WHO, most often headaches of a tense type occur due to the following reasons:

• depressive disorders and chronic stress caused by the accumulation of traumatic life events, falling into intractable situations, special personal characteristics, incorrect behavioral strategies for combating pain;
• medicinal abusus - excessive use of painkillers of various kinds, including single-component analgesics and combination drugs containing additionally sedative components, caffeine, etc. In such situations, the chronization of pain occurs 2 times faster than with the competent use of painkillers. At the same time, the development of medicinal abusus significantly complicates treatment and, first of all, requires the complete withdrawal of the drug that provoked it.
• muscle factor - overexertion of pericranial muscles (neck, face and head), which accompanies the long-term preservation of the forced position of the body during work. In this case, a vicious circle may arise when muscle tension, which, in fact, is a spasm, leads to irritation of the nerves, which provokes increased pain in the head, which in turn causes even more muscle tension. The situation is aggravated against the background of experiencing emotional stress, increased anxiety and depression.^[1]

283 million people suffer from headaches due to alcohol in the world. Why they appear

On October 30, 2023, a study was published explaining the cause of headaches after drinking alcohol. As scientists have found out, the stress hormone corticotropin-releasing factor, or corticorelin for short, is responsible for the headache. Read more here.