My teen-age daughter complains of frequent headaches. She wears glasses and has had her perscription recently changed, but she still experiences headaches often- different times throughout the day, once a week and sometimes more. She does suffer from allergies..could this somehow be related or might it be something else? She says it's usually a pounding in the back of her head or right in the frontal lobe. She is 13-premenstrual. Ibuprofen usually eliminates the pain.
Response from Roger A. Forden, M.D.
Headaches, especially in the adolescent population, are a rather common complaint in most pediatric and family medicine offices. There certainly can be many different causes: from simple stress to allergies to hypertension, migraines, hormonal changes, or much more serious causes such as tumors or other space-occupying lesions in the brain (which are extremely rare). Your daughter's headaches are probably not from "eye strain" since her prescription is new. However, she should have a thorough physical examination by her personal physician, particularly including a funduscopic exam (checking the retina of each eye for increased intracranial pressure), and a blood pressure evaluation. If the headaches are associated with nausea and intense pain, migraine-type headache might be considered. Most serious causes of such pain would not be treatable with simple ibuprofen.
Also, is she taking any other medication currently? Have the allergies been evaluated? The best answer here lies with her physician.
NOTICE: OFCN is not engaged in the rendering of professional medical services. The information contained on this system or any other OFCN system should not supplant individual professional consultation. It is offered exclusively as a community education service. Advice on individual problems must be obtained directly from a professional.
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NOTICE: OFCN is not engaged in the rendering of professional medical services. The information contained on this system or any other OFCN system should not supplant individual professional consultation. It is offered exclusively as a community education service. Advice on individual problems must be obtained directly from a professional.
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