Chronic Daily Headache (CDH)
Chronic daily headache (CDH) is typically defined as head pain occurring daily, or nearly daily, at least 15 days a month. The incessant nature of chronic daily headaches makes them among the most disabling headaches. There are 4 Chronic daily headache subtypes:
- Chronic migraine
- Chronic tension-type headache
- New daily persistent headache
- Hemicrania continua
Chronic Daily Headache Subcategories
Doctors divide chronic daily headache into two subcategories: Primary and Secondary.
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Primary CDH: not attributable to an underlying disorder
- Shorter than four hours duration
- chronic cluster headache
- chronic paroxysmal hemicrania
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- Longer than four hours duration
- chronic tension-type headache
- chronic Migraine (sometimes called transformed Migraine)
- new daily persistent headache
- hemicrania continua
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Secondary CDH: attributable to an underlying disorder
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- attributable to cervical spine disorders
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- associated with vascular disorders such as arteriovenous malformation, arteritis, subdural hematoma
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- associated with nonvascular intercranial disorders such as intracranial hypertension, infection, or neoplasm
Additionally, each of those types of headache above is typically subdivided into two groups; those associated with medication overuse and those without medication overuse. Research has shown that medication overuse headaches, often contribute to headache becoming chronic, a condition known as rebound headaches. Interestingly, studies have also shown that medication overuse is less common in the group of people who are treated by headache specialists.
Studies have also shown that chronic daily headache (CDH) sufferers were more likely to snore and report problems with sleep than people who had episodic headache or migraine headache.
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