In medicine a headache or cephalalgia is a symptom A symptom is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient, indicating the presence of disease or abnormality. A symptom is subjective, observed by the patient, and not measured of a number of different conditions of the head In anatomy, the head of an animal is the rostral part that usually comprises the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth (all of which aid in various sensory functions, such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste). Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do.[1] Headache is caused by a disturbance of the pain-sensitive structures in the head. The brain in itself is not sensitive to pain, because it lacks nociceptors. Several areas of the head and neck have the pain-sensitive structures. The pain-sensitive structures are divided in two: within the cranium (blood vessels, meninges, and the cranial nerves) and outside the cranium (the periosteum of the skull, muscles, nerves, arteries and veins, subcutaneous tissues, eyes, ears, sinuses and mucous membranes).
There are a number of different classification systems for headaches. The most well-recognized is that of the International Headache Society The International Headache Society is a charity organization founded in 1981 for people from all professions that are working to treat headache disorders. Treatment of a headache depends on the underlying etiology or cause, but commonly involves analgesics An analgesic is any member of the group of drugs used to relieve pain (achieve analgesia). The word analgesic derives from Greek an- ("without") and algos ("pain"). Analgesic drugs act in various ways on the peripheral and central nervous systems; they include paracetamol (para-acetylaminophenol, also known in the US as.
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