Headaches can be very different for different people. The pain
may have different qualities: throbbing, sharp or stabbing,
constant or intermittent, a dull ache. Some headaches may last
only seconds or minutes, whereas others last hours or even days.
Some headaches may be felt in the forehead, in the temples or in
the back of the neck; sometimes headaches occur just on one side
of the head. The quality, duration and location of a headache
often help health-care providers to make a specific diagnosis.
Headaches also vary in their frequency. Some peoples have rare
or infrequent headaches. Others get headaches on a regular
basis, including women whose headaches coincide with their
menstrual periods. Still others have clusters of severe
headaches that occur frequently over several weeks, then
disappear for months or even years. Most troubling are the
headaches that occur frequently, or even daily, over months or
years. There are many different types and causes of headaches.
Health care providers generally divide