Introduction
Headache in the forehead is a symptom that is caused by irritation of pain-sensitive structures in the head, such as the meninges, cranial nerves or blood vessels. Headaches in the forehead are usually an expression of overload or stress and do not require any special therapy. In some cases, however, forehead headaches may be caused by disorders such as migraine, tension headaches or cluster headaches (Bing-Horton syndrome).
Symptoms
Headaches in the area of the forehead are of a pulling, stabbing or dull pressing character of varying intensity and can occur on one or both sides. Headaches in the forehead often occur in attacks, but can also persist over a longer period of time. Headaches in the forehead that persist over a longer period of time are called chronic headaches.
Various accompanying symptoms can be accompanied by headaches in the forehead. These are listed below.
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Swindle
- Visual disturbances or speech disorders,
- Noise and noise sensitivity,
- Tears of one eye or nasal discharge
Localization of headaches
Headaches in the forehead can occur with pain in other localizations and thus provide clues to the cause. In the following you will find an overview of the most common combinations and their disorders.
- Headaches with eye involvement
- Headaches on forehead and temples
- Headaches with neck pain
- Headaches in combination with nausea
- Unilateral headaches
Headaches in the forehead can also be caused by overexertion of the eyes, such as working long at the screen.
Also visual defects that are not sufficiently corrected by glasses can cause headaches in the forehead. In some cases, diseases of the eyes can also cause headaches in the forehead. This includes in particular glaucoma (green star).
In glaucoma, a disruption in the outflow of aqueous humor causes a sharp increase in intraocular pressure. The increased intraocular pressure leads to severe headaches and eye pain as well as to a reduction in visual acuity. Occasionally nausea and vomiting also occur.
Since blindness can occur as a result of glaucoma, this cause of headaches in the forehead should be treated urgently. Therapy can be carried out with various medication, such as the administration of mannitol and so-called carboanhydrase inhibitors as well as surgical procedures to lower the intraocular pressure. Pain at the temples can in principle have the same causes as headaches in the forehead.
In addition to migraine, cluster headache or tension headache, temporal pain should also be considered as a trigger for arteritis temporalis (giant cell arteritis). In temporal arteritis, autoimmune processes lead to inflammation of a blood vessel in the temporal artery, the temporal artery. The inflammation can lead to complaints such as fatigue, fever, massive temple pain, pain while chewing and, if blood vessels of the eye are involved, to a reduction in visual acuity and visual disturbances.
Since untreated blindness can occur, temporal arteritis should be treated immediately with high-dose cortisone. Headaches of the forehead, which originate from the neck, can be caused by diseases of the cervical spine (cervical spine) or muscle tension in the neck. Diseases of the cervical spine that cause neck pain that can radiate into the forehead include injuries to the cervical spine caused by trauma, fractures and instabilities of the cervical spine, rheumatic diseases of the cervical spine, as well as malformations of the cervical spine and malpositions of the head.
If neck pain is suspected due to a disease of the cervical spine, an orthopedist should be consulted. With the help of a physical examination and imaging procedures such as X-rays, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the orthopedist can make a diagnosis and initiate appropriate therapy measures. Depending on the cause of the neck pain, various therapeutic measures such as physiotherapeutic or physical applications, the administration of medication and surgical interventions can be considered.
Headaches in the forehead, which are accompanied by nausea, are typical symptoms of migraine.Migraine is a type of headache that occurs in attacks and is usually located on one side of the head. Typical symptoms are headaches in the forehead, temples and behind the eye, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and noise. The mechanism by which migraine develops is unknown.
For the treatment of an acute migraine attack, drugs such as ASA, ibuprofen, paracetamol or triptans are used. For the treatment of nausea, so-called antiemetics such as metoclopramide or domperidone are used. The unilateral occurrence of headache in the forehead is characteristic of two forms of headache, migraine and cluster headache.
Both types of headache are characterized by attacks of unilateral headache accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound, unilateral tearing of the eye and unilateral nasal discharge. Bilateral headache is more likely to be a migraine or cluster headache and is more typical of a tension headache. Unilateral migraine or cluster headache is treated with ASA, ibuprofen, paracetamol and triptans or with 100% oxygen.
