ON THE ORIGIN OF HEADACHES

Headache is one of the most common types of pain, but its causes remai n poorly understood. The long-standing idea that some headaches, parti cularly migraine, might be caused by cerebral or cranial vasodilation has failed to find support in recent studies. Alternative hypotheses h ave focused on other processes that might be capable of activating or sensitizing sensory nerve fibres that innervate the blood vessels of t he intracranial meninges.