Occipital headaches are very common. In many cases, they are misdiagnosed as neck pain, cervical syndrome, migraine or tension headache. This does not mean that these diseases do not sometimes cause pain in the occipital region. It is important to know that if treatment of these conditions does not lead to improvement, it should be determined whether there are other causes of the occipital headache.

The most common cause of occipital headache is irritation of the occipital nerves, so it often manifests itself with more or less pronounced occipital neuralgia (occipital neuralgia, neuralgia of the great occipital nerve, etc.).

This is a very common disease and is usually manifested with pain (often very intense), in the area of the nape, as nape and neck pain (on one or both sides). The pain may also feel like tingling, unpleasant numbness, electric shock, or burning. It can spread to the ear, the front of the neck or the front of the head and “behind” the eyes. It can be accompanied by instability, dizziness, tinnitus, blurred vision and a feeling of lack of light.

It is important to establish whether it is an occipital headache and what its exact causes are. The most common mistake in diagnosis is excessive reliance on individual images of the head, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MR). In most cases of occipital neuralgia, an MRI scan of the brain and cervical spine comes back normal or shows mild pathology of the cervical spine that can lead to a misdiagnosis. The correct diagnosis is arrived at by getting and analyzing all the information about the pain and other symptoms.

In everyday practice, the real cause of the pain often goes undetected, so treatment is unsuccessful. The following conditions are usually blamed for it: the patient’s age, obesity, poor posture, mental state, or other chronic diseases.

Actually, once the exact cause of the occipital headache has been determined, specific treatment can begin. It involves first prescribing the correct combination of medication and dosages to urgently decrease the pain, and then adjusting them over the next 6 weeks. To provide this during this period, the doctor must be available to the patient at any time so that he can easily contact him if the pain increases.

Sometimes pain interventional treatment procedures or even surgery are indicated.

In over 80% of patients who have persistent and intense occipital headaches, we can immediately stop the pain and get it under control. Contact us for a consultation.

More about an occipital headache.