Causes of Chronic Headaches

A chronic headache includes recurring headaches or Chronic Daily Headache (CDH). The most common causes are migraines, tension headaches, or cluster headaches.

Recurring Headache Conditions: Causes of chronic recurring headaches include:

  • Migraine (including various subtypes of episodic migraines)
  • Tension headaches
  • Cluster headaches
  • Muscle contraction headaches
  • Neck muscle headaches
  • Vascular headaches
  • Diabetic headaches (episodic headaches related to fluctuating blood glucose levels)

Daily Activity Headaches: There may be some trigger in your daily activities that makes headache more likely, such as in your occupation. Consider possible causes such as:

  • Eyestrain headache
  • Postural headache
  • Neck muscle headache

Recurring Triggered Headaches: Examples of headaches that may recur, but only in reaction to known particular stimuli include:

  • Sexual headache
  • Substance-related headaches (e.g. hangover, red wine headache, caffeine withdrawal headache, drug rebound headaches, and many others)

Chronic Head Pain Conditions: Disorders affecting parts of the head or its blood vessels may cause “neuralgia” or other “head pain”, which is usually somewhat different to the feeling of a headache in the brain. Nevertheless, these head pain conditions can be chronic, such as:

Other Causes: These are not the only possible causes of chronic headache. There are many other causes of headaches, in general, and in theory, almost any of these causes could cause a headache that recurs or is episodic. Read more about: Headaches.

Note: This site is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. See your doctor or other qualified medical professional for all your medical needs.