Information for the public

Headaches

Headaches

Headaches are a very common health problem. They can be either chronic or episodic, depending on how often they occur. Most headaches are primary headaches, which means that they do not have an underlying cause. Secondary headaches are those that are caused by another health problem or by medication.

The NICE guideline looks at 3 types of primary headache.

  • Tension-type headache.

  • Migraine, including migraine with aura and menstrual‑related migraine.

  • Cluster headache.

It also looks at 1 type of secondary headache:

  • Medication overuse headache.