Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about headaches.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash headaches or in the

neurology section of the second edition of the zero to finals medicine book.

And you can find flashcards and questions to train your knowledge on this content and help

remember the information for longer at members.0 to finals.com. So let's get straight into it.

Headaches are a very common presentation and they have a large number of causes including tension headaches, migraines, cluster headaches, secondary headaches, sinusitis, giant cell

arthritis, glaucoma, intracranial hemorrhage, venousinous thrombosis,

subarachnoid hemorrhage, medication overuse headache, hormonal headache, cervical spondylosis,

carbon monoxide poisoning, trigeminal neuralgia, raised intracranial pressure,

brain tumours, meningitis, encephalitis, brain abscess and preeclampsia in pregnancy.

Let's start by going through the red flags.

The key red flags associated with a headache which indicate a possible serious underlying

cause include fever, photophobia or neck stiffness, which could indicate meningitis,

encephalitis or a brain abscess.

New neurological symptoms, which could indicate a hemorrhage or brain tumour.

Visual disturbance, which may indicate giant cell arthritis, glaucoma or tumours.

Sudden onset ocipital headache at the back of the head could indicate a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

A headache that's worse on coughing or straining can indicate raised intracranial pressure.

Postural symptoms where the headache is worse on standing, lying or bending over,

could indicate raised intracranial pressure.

Vomiting can indicate raised intracranial pressure or carbon monoxide poisoning.

A history of trauma can indicate intracranial hemorrhage, a history of cancer may indicate

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