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Almost everyone experiences a headache from time to time, with 90 percent of us having at least one headache a year. Although they're usually benign conditions, headaches can be serious, biologically based disorders.
Headaches also can be symptoms of serious illnesses, such as brain tumors; hemorrhaging or bleeding in the brain; meningitis, an infection causing inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord; or giant cell arteries, a disorder involving inflammation and damage to blood vessels, particularly those in the neck. About 5 percent of patients with severe headaches have a serious underlying neurological condition.
At the UCSF Medical Center, specialists diagnose and treat headaches in the UCSF Headache Center and the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, which combines conventional and alternative medicine, such as acupuncture, herbs, massage and meditation.
Although there are 150 different diagnostic categories of headaches, the most common are:
At our headache center, experts work with you and your primary care doctor to develop a long-term treatment plan. For severe conditions that have not responded to medications and other therapies, hospital care may be recommended.
Before meeting with a headache specialist, maintaining a headache journal that tracks headache patterns — such as the location and severity of the pain, duration of the pain, medications taken and possible headache triggers — can provide helpful information for your diagnosis and treatment.
To make an appointment, please contact the UCSF Headache Center:
For help finding a doctor, please contact the Physician Referral Service:
Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Medical Center.
Last updated April 24, 2008
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