Head pain may indicate brain tumors or a brain injury, but in the majority of cases head pain is due to non-organic causes. Organic headaches are symptoms of a physical condition. Examples of organic head pain include meningitis, aneurysm, brain tumors, brain abscesses, and brain injury.
Only one to five percent of head pain has an organic cause, but severe or persistent head pain should never be ignored. If head pain does have an organic cause the condition is often serious enough to require immediate medical attention. Seek medical help for head pain if any of the following conditions apply.
- Head pain causes loss of balance or coordination.
- Headache is accompanied by mental confusion or loss of consciousness.
- Head pain is associated with mood swings, odd behavior, or personality changes.
- Headache occurs following a head or brain injury.
- Head pain onset is sudden, intense, and severe.
- Muscular weakness of numbness accompanies head pain.
- Previous history of head pain exists.
- Seizures or convulsions occur.
- Visual problems occur with headaches.
- You experience difficulty speaking or slurred speech.
Causes of Head Pain
The following conditions can all cause severe head pain, and are all considered medical emergencies. While uncommon, brain tumors, aneurysms, and other organic causes of head pain are much more serious than even the most severe non-organic types of headache.
Brain Tumors and Headaches
Not all brain tumors cause head pain. Slow-growing brain tumors may only cause dull, occasional head pain that is easily mistaken for a normal headache. Over the counter painkillers often provide relief. This makes symptoms of brain tumors easy to ignore until the tumors grow large enough to cause intracranial pressure and more severe head pain.
Rapidly growing brain tumors are characterized by a sudden onset of head pain as the tumors put pressure on the skull and surrounding brain tissue. Rapid-growth brain tumors can cause progressively worsening head pain, or head pain that is aggravated by coughing, movement, and exercise.
Head pain from brain tumors is often described as deep, steady, aching, or dull, but brain tumors rarely cause throbbing headaches. The sudden development of sharp intense head pain with no previous history of headaches suggests the possibility of a brain tumor. Other symptoms of brain tumors may include:
Rapidly growing brain tumors are characterized by a sudden onset of head pain as the tumors put pressure on the skull and surrounding brain tissue. Rapid-growth brain tumors can cause progressively worsening head pain, or head pain that is aggravated by coughing, movement, and exercise.
Head pain from brain tumors is often described as deep, steady, aching, or dull, but brain tumors rarely cause throbbing headaches. The sudden development of sharp intense head pain with no previous history of headaches suggests the possibility of a brain tumor. Other symptoms of brain tumors may include:
- difficulty speaking or swallowing
- loss of mental alertness
- mental confusion
- seizures and convulsions
- sudden loss of coordination
- unusual, "weird," or inappropriate behavior
- visual problems.
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