If you’ve had headaches for many years, you know they can be triggered by a seemingly endless number of factors, ranging from anxiety to weather patterns to 3D movies.
But have you heard of headaches triggered by trapped nerves?
There is a nerve on either side of your head called the greater occipital nerves. They reach from the spine through the neck to the top of the head. Irritation of these nerves can cause aching, tingling or shooting pain in the neck or scalp or toward the eye.1
Technically, greater occipital neuralgia involves a shooting pain among these nerves. But the National Headache Foundation (NHF) points out that it doesn’t have to involve a shooting neuralgia—it could be an aching bilateral headache that lasts from minutes to days. This could be attributed to entrapment or pinching of the greater occipital nerve (although it could also be traced to muscle in the back of the head) or a head injury that injures specific joints.
Occipital neuralgia is rare, say physicians at Johns Hopkins. But because repeated migraines and other headaches that occur at the same spot at the back of the head can inflame the occipital nerve, it can be tough to determine whether it’s truly an occipital neuralgia or just migraines that involve the occipital nerves.1
Because it could be confused with migraine, it is important to see a headache specialist for a proper diagnosis. Nerve blocks can help a specialist diagnose occipital neuralgia, and can also be used to treat the condition. Treatment may also involve nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory medications and muscle relaxants, antiseizure medications, antidepressant medications, physical therapy and experimental treatments (e.g., implantation of peripheral nerve stimulation systems and cutting nerve roots).
Have you ever had a trapped nerve? What was the pain like?
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