Getting a headache when you are coughing is a common thing, and sometimes the headache may present itself when you bend over. For people who are having a dry cough, or who have had a cold for a long time, such headaches are quite common.

Whenever you cough, you get a lot of pressure in our head, chest and neck. When you have a persistent cough, the pressure in your head can lead to you having a headache. Sometimes when the cough is too much, you may begin to experience pain in other parts of the body, such as the eyes.

According to experts, a benign couch headache is bilateral, and occurs without any signs. There is a primary cough headache, which occurs when the patient is coughing and only lasts for a few moments. This is the type of headache that one may experience when watching a funny movie and laughing all the time; sometimes such a headache will come when one has been crying for a long time. The one thing that differentiates a primary cough headache from a secondary one is the duration and intensity of the headache.

Symptoms

As mentioned earlier, there a two main cough headaches, which are primary and secondary. Here are the symptoms associated with each

Primary Cough Headache

• The patient will experience headaches after coughing or doing any other strenuous activity.
• The headaches will only last for a short period of time, usually from a few seconds to a minute or so.
• The headaches will occur suddenly without warning.
• The pain is sharp, splitting or stabbing.
• There may be a dull ache that could last for hours after the initial pain.
• It appears on both sides of the head, but the pain is much stronger at the back.

Secondary Cough Headaches

These symptoms will be similar to those of primary cough headaches but may also include the following:

• Unsteadiness when walking.
• The headaches last longer.
• The patient may even faint from the pain.

Causes of Cough Headaches

The odd thing is that exerts have never been able to pinpoint the cause of primary cough headaches. However, secondary cough headaches could be caused by a number of factors:

• The skull may have a defect in its shape, placing pressure on the brain whenever a patient coughs.
• There may also be a defect in the cerebellum, which is the part of the brain responsible for balance. This condition is comes about when the brain is pushed through an opening at the bottom of the skull, called the Foramen Magnum. This space should only contain the spinal cord. These defects are collectively known as Chiari Malformations.
• One of the blood vessels in the brain may also have a weakness; this is a condition known as a Brain or Cerebral Aneurysm.
• The patient may also have a tumor growing in the brain, and the pressure of the cough adds more pressure to the affected areas.
• The patient may also have a spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leak, when he coughs too hard.

Treatment 

The treatment of cough headaches will depend on whether the patient is suffering from primary or secondary cough headaches.

Primary cough headache

For patients who have a long history of primary cough headaches, the physician will require you to take pain medication on a daily basis so the pain can be prevented or reduced altogether. The medication used in this case includes the following:

Acetazolamide – this is a diuretic drug, which means that is causes fluids to be removed from the body, and this helps in reducing the amount of spinal fluid, which in turn reduces the pressure in the brain.

Propanolol – This is a drug that relaxes the blood vessels in the brain, and this helps in reducing the blood pressure which may cause pain whenever you cough. The brands are Inderal and Innopran XL.

Indomethacin – This is an anti-inflammatory, which will help in reducing the cough, and thereby the headache.

Phenelzin (Nardil) Intravenous Dihydroergotamine (D.H.E 45), Methysergide, Naproxen (Naprosyn and Ergonovine are other common drugs that are used in the treatment of primary cough headache.

It is only on rare circumstances that a spinal tap, also known as a lumbar puncture is used. In this case, the doctor will remove some of the spinal fluid in the brain and spinal cord. This procedure is done in emergencies in order to reduce the pressure quickly.

Secondary cough headache

For people with Secondary cough headaches, the main treatment is a surgical procedure to try and rectify the underlying causes. There are times when preventative medication can be used to prevent or alleviate the pain in this condition. However, when medication works well on you, it does not mean that you have primary cough headaches.