Diagnosing a headache should be one of the simplest things in the world since nearly every adult suffers from headaches and when you have one then you certainly know about it. But, despite the clear pain, diagnosing a headache is a little more difficult than you may think.

Amazingly there are no definitive tests for use in diagnosing a headache and if you believe you have a headache and are feeling pain then all you can do is to tell your physician how you feel and it is his job to come up with a diagnosis on the basis of what you tell him. One big problem however is that when it comes to reporting symptoms descriptions can vary markedly.

Some individuals are not as clear as others when it comes to describing what they feel and our often limited vocabulary does not always help us either. Saying that you have a 'stabbing pain' may seem like a very good description to you but it might not necessarily help your physician very much.

As if all of this was not bad enough diagnosing a headache is made more difficult by the fact that headaches come in a variety of different types.

Tension headaches which are caused by inflamed facial or neck muscles and dilated blood vessels in the head amongst other things do not normally get diagnosed by a physician as the majority of people merely treat them with painkillers or simply wait until they fade.

By contrast, migraines are far worse and are much more likely to occasion a visit to the physician although even with migraines approximately half of sufferers do not ask for professional help.

Physicians can make use of a variety of factors in order to diagnose a particular type of headache and advise a suitable treatment and, even though the pain felt is subjective, the type of pain is indicative of the type of headache. For example, migraines generally produce strong throbbing or pulsating sensations whereas in tension headaches the pain is generally more constant and diffuse.

Migraines are also usually accompanied by nausea as well as sensitivity to sound and light, cold extremities and other signs that sufferers will recognize. And, as these symptoms tend to be roughly identical from one person to another, physicians have an objective set of symptoms on which they can base a proper diagnosis.

Cluster headaches are characterized by a powerful pain behind the eye or temple that remains for normally half an hour to an hour and then returns the next day at roughly the same time. Cluster headaches can continue for several weeks and, once more as they are fairly regular, physicians have something to go o when making a diagnosis.

In instances where a headache is the result of a serious underlying condition such as a brain tumor, physicians can identify this without too much difficulty. For example, CT or MRI scans can be used to look for well documented patterns that can link a headache to the physical problem underlying it.

Headaches which tend to worsen over time also provide physicians with a clue, as do quickly shifting patterns of pain, and this could for example indicate an aneurysm (a weakened blood vessel) as the underlying cause.

Diagnosing a headache is complex because of many different forms of headache and the wide range of symptoms. Nonetheless the secret is to gather as much objective information as possible both from the sufferer and clinical testing.

TheMigraineHeadacheCenter.com provides specific information about migraines and other related topics such as morning headaches