Following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), headaches often appear. In fact, 30% of people do report that they suffer from headaches for a long time after the injury happened. 

Why Are Headaches Problematic After Brain Injury?

After a TBI, headaches can constantly come and go from time to time even for one year. Dealing with headaches always makes it really difficult to carry out the daily activities you have. It simply becomes really difficult to remember things and think. 

Why Are Headaches Appearing After TBI?

According to a trusted Springfield personal injury attorney, after the severe TBI, it is possible that people have headaches due to skull surgery or some fluid or blood is present inside the skull. It is also possible that headaches appear after moderate to mild injuries, way after initial healing happened. Such a headache can be caused by various possible conditions. This includes brain changes caused by injuries, skull injuries and neck injuries that did not properly heal. You can even end up affected by stress, tension or medication side effects. 

Types Of Common Headaches Following TBI

• Migraine Headaches

Such headaches happen due to the fact that one part of the brain is hypersensitive, thus triggering pain signals that can spread to other brain parts. Such headaches are normally dull and just appear on one side of your head. They can be accompanied by vomiting, nausea, sound sensitivity and light sensitivity. Signs that migraines come are common, like seeing bright lights or spots. 

• Tension-Type Headaches

These are normally associated with stress and muscle spasms or muscle tension. They normally feel tight and go around the head, affecting both sides. The pain level is normally rated moderate or lower and the headaches tend to appear later during the day. 

• Cervicogenic Headaches

These often happen when there was injury that affected the neck or the back of your head’s soft tissues and muscles. Most nerves found in these areas have branches traveling towards your scalp and skull. The result can be head pain. Usually, this is a headache that starts in your neck, back of your head and shoulders. It can then move towards your head’s top area. Neck positioning or movement tends to make it worse and pain can be as high as severe. 

• Rebound Headaches

There are situations in which the medicine you take in order to treat your headaches cause more headaches. If you take pain medication every single day, even missing one dose can lead to a strong headache. This is the rebound headache and it is similar to what you feel if you decide to decrease how much caffeine is used on a daily basis.

Final Thoughts

Following traumatic brain injury, headaches are common but they usually go away with proper treatment. It is really important that you keep in touch with your doctor so that you are aware of everything that needs to be done. At the same time, if at any point in time you feel the headache is too strong, you want to go get checked out.