Tension headache

Tension headache (TTH), also known as muscle contraction headache, is the most common type of headache. It is generally believed that its prevalence is higher than that of migraine, accounting for about half of headache patients in outpatient clinics. It is mainly characterized by a feeling of pressure and heaviness in the head caused by sustained contraction of the muscles in the neck and head and face. Some patients describe it as a sensation of a "tight band" around the head. TTH is the diagnostic term established by the International Headache Society (IHS) in 1998 in the "Classification and Diagnostic Criteria for Headache Disorders, Cranial Neuralgias and Facial Pain," and it has now been widely adopted internationally. TTH includes the content of muscle contraction headache and psychogenic headache from the 1962 classification of headaches by the Ad Hoc Committee. In the new classification, TTH is further divided into two subtypes based on the duration of headache episodes and pericranial muscle disorders: ① Episodic tension-type headache (ETTH). ② Chronic tension-type headache (CTTH). The difference between ETTH and CTTH is that ETTH involves at least 10 headache episodes within fewer than 15 days per month, each lasting from 30 minutes to 7 days; whereas CTTH involves headache episodes on at least 15 days per month.