Question:
I have
sporadic pain in the left side of my head.
It is
a sharp pain on one side of my head that comes and goes.
It is
a short 10 second sharp pain towards the front of my skull in the
left side.
It is
a sharp short burst pain (5-10 seconds) acute head pain with short
duration and it is hard for me to give reason.
It feels
like a slight stabbing pain and extremely intense headache. What is
this coming from?
Do I
need a brain scan?
Joshua
Answer:
Dear
Joshua
,
They
may be what i known as "ice pick headaches." They are short,
stabbing, extremely intense headaches that can be absolutely terrifying.
They
only last between five and 30 seconds.
However,
they come out of nowhere, can strike anywhere on the head, literally
feel as if an ice pick is being stuck into your head, then disappear
before you can even figure out what's happening.
The International
Headache Society diagnostic criteria are:
-Head
pain occurring as a single stab or a series of stabs and fulfilling
criteria B-D
-Exclusively
or predominantly felt in the distribution of the first division of
the trigeminal nerve (orbit, temple and parietal area)
-Stabs
last for up to a few seconds and recur with irregular frequency ranging
from one to many per day
-No accompanying
symptoms
-Not
attributed to another disorder
In almost
every case, no cause for the headaches is found.
There
are only a few cases published in medical journals of serious disease
associated with ice pick pains.
You do
not need a brain scan if you have these severe headaches.
