Headache Management

Headache treatment is a specialised area of treatment at City Physio. Headaches can have a variety of caused and contributing factors, and breaking these down into what can be treated by physiotherapy, what warrants a medical review and what is an emergency is something we pride ourselves on at City Physio.

Not all headaches have the same cause. As such, successful treatment relies on a thorough understanding of the patient and the history and a specific assessment. Differentiating between a migraine, tension-type headache and a cervicogenic headache takes advanced training, a skilled eye and specific assessment. 

Headaches affect approximately two-thirds of the population with a large proportion including an element of neck referral- we call these a Cervicogenic Headaches. These are the most common headaches we see at City Physio just due to the nature of the patient we see most commonly- desk workers, those with high or rollercoaster stress levels and ultimately those mainly desk based. This can cause additional loads in some of the joints of the neck, some postural compensations and muscle tightness that can contribute to cervical joint dysfunction in the upper neck joints resulting in headache.

We also treat a variety of migraine types- but again, this requires accurate diagnosis to differentiate from cervicogenic or tension-type headaches! Migraines have specific diagnostic criteria and often come with light or sound sensitivity, an aura and occasionally neck pain. BUT! This is where the training comes in- some migraines have neck pain as a trigger, some have neck pain as a part of the migraine symptoms themselves and some have a separate and completely unrelated neck pain, if at all! Wading your way through the diagnostic complexities requires a trained eye, targeted questioning and sometimes an open communication pathway with GP and neurologist. This is something we pride ourselves on at City Physio, and even have a specific appointment type dedicated to headache and migraine treatment. 

Physiotherapy can assist in the diagnosis and management of headaches and migraines by very specifically assessing and addressing musculoskeletal dysfunction and working to optimise the movement of the small joints, discs and muscles that may be involved in the pain profile. We will then build a comprehensive plan to address these symptomatic dysfunctions with a forward look to preventing these in the future. This may include a variety of targeted manual therapy techniques, myofasical work, exercise prescription and sometimes a progression into our Small Group Equipment pilates programs to help build out some control in a supervised program