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Headache as a Whiplash Injury Symptom
Common Symptoms and Symptom Patterns after Whiplash Injury to the Neck
Whiplash related injuries cause a range of symptoms. Neck pain after whiplash may the commonest presentation but there are a wide range of other troublesome whiplash related symptoms. This article focusses on headache after whiplash injury to the neck.
Headache after whiplash injury is common.
Whiplash injury headache is usually felt at the back of the head and this kind of headache can persist for many months in some patients. Read on for more information and for this kind of headache treatment advice ...
After neck pain, headache is the second commonest symptom that whiplash injury patients experience. The symptom can often outweigh the neck pain in terms of severity - particularly in the early weeks after injury.
Nearly two thirds of whiplash injury patients experience headache. About half feel the pain in the back of their head, a further third get headache all over the head and a smaller number feel the headache at their forehead or behind their eyes.
Headache after whiplash injury often shows itself for the first time on the morning after the accident. The pain sweeps up from the neck and over the back of the head. Most sufferers find that heat on the back of the neck will ease the symptom. Cold makes it worse.
Neck movements often aggravate whiplash injury headache - particularly if the neck is moved towards extension: looking up to the ceiling is often very painful.
Patients with this kind of headache often also get shoulder pain, and touching the big trapezius muscles over the back of the neck and shoulders can provoke pain or headache. There are often tender spots or trigger points in these muscles.
Women get headache after whiplash injury more often than men - the reason for this is unclear but might relate to the smaller structures of the female neck anatomy.
So what causes whiplash injury headache? Many research studies have looked to explain why the problem occurs. It seems most likely that the headache after whiplash injury arises from a mixture of inflammation in the neck muscles and irritation of the nerves that go from the neck, up and over the head.
Careful research has shown that whiplash injury headache can persist for a year or more in some patients - but for most the head pain improves within a month or two of the accident.
How should this kind of symptom be treated? Well, the research is not good quality so there is no definitive answer to this. In my experience the headache is often quickly improved by hands on physical therapy or by acupuncture. Anti-inflammatory tablets help some patients and - for a minority of whiplash injury headache patients - injections deep into the spinal tissues can transform the situation.
Follow these page links for other pages on the Cameron Medical site that relate to neck pain or to whiplash injury, whiplash symptom patterns and to whiplash compensation.
Treatment for Whiplash Injury
Whiplash injury - recent car crash data about neck injury
Whiplash symptoms in children
Whiplash injury in countries other than the USA or the UK
Whiplash neck pain
Neck pains
Personal injury lawyer
The Cameron Medical Website has a huge amount of content on issues related to joint pain, arthritis, back pain and other orthopaedic or joint problems. Most of it is written by Dr Cameron specially for this website. Click here to see what's available.
If you want up to date information about the medical aspects of whiplash injury then you should take a look at these comprehensive pages.
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