Editorial: Headache who to be investigated?

Abstract

Headache is such acommondisorder that its lifetime prevalence can safely be presumed to 100% in any population. In fact this is the commonest pain for which patients consult a doctor.Humansare so much annoyed with this pain that they label every difficult problem as a “headache”. One of the Punjabi proverb says, “bigger the head, bigger are the headaches” meaning people with more responsibilities have more problems to solve. Human beliefs about headache and its treatment have been very interesting and human relation with headache dates back to 1 ancient times. About 7000 BC, people believed that headache occurred because of entrance of demons and evil spirits in head. They practiced trepanation (Making a hole in skull bone) to release these spirits from head. Neolithic skeletons have been found to have holes in their skulls. Interestingly, at least some of these patients survived because of the evidence that some of these skulls had new bone formation at the edges of these holes. Trepanning seems to continue till seventeenth century because in 1660,
William Harvey suggested trepanation to a patient who had intractable headache.
Around 1200 BC Egyptians would bind a crocodile made of clay tightly around the
head of headache patients. The linen with which this crocodile was tied displayed
names of gods on it. It was believed that these gods would cure the headache.
Around 400 BC, Hippocrates not only described aura of migraine as flashing light preceding headache, but also defined some of its triggering factors such as intercourse and exercise. He also believed that vapours arising from bile in the stomach rise to head to cause headache and that vomiting out of this bile relieve the headache.