Treatment of Tension-Type Headache

The term tension-type headache is used to describe head pain syndromes which cause bilateral and tight discomfort like feeling in the head. Tension-type headache may be chronic or episodic in nature. The severity of headache varies. In chronic tension-type headache the pain is usually present for more that 15 days a month.

The pain of tension-type headache can be managed in maximum of patients with simple analgesics (pain killers) like acetaminophen (paracetamol), aspirin or NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen, diclofenac etc. In many patients with tension-type headache, behavioral therapy like relaxation techniques gives satisfactory results.

If tension-type headache is chronic, amitriptyline is the only drug that is proven to be effective in treatment and other tri-cyclic anti deppressants, SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), and the benzodiazepines are not effective. Studies have also shown that drugs like sumatriptan (used in treatment of migraine headache) are not helpful in treatment of tension-type headache, although they are effective in treatment of tension-type headache when the patient also has migraine.

Many patients with tension-type headache usually approach CAM (complimentary and alternative medicines) like acupuncture, but studies have shown that acupuncture is not effective in treating tension-type headache. Several studies of placebo controlled trials of botulinum toxin type A in chronic tension-type headache has not given any beneficial result.