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About – Headache a Sign of Covid
Headache a Sign of Covid, it is a symptom of a reasonable prognosis of the disease. The virus would act as a migraine by inflaming the thirtieth nerve, but the “damage” would stay there, and there would be no generalized cytokine storm.
Knowing if Covid-19 will have a better or worse prognosis is key to anticipating complications and applying treatments that prevent greater evils. And the symptoms that the disease presents can be an actual crystal ball that predicts where the patient will evolve.
The headache is one of them. It is one of the neurological symptoms most associated with Covid-19. However, until now, little has been delved into its ability to predict the disease’s course.
The presence of headache is associated with a better evolution of the disease. In fact, in people who suffer from it, Covid-19 lasts on average one week less.
The Neurology Services of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and the research groups on Headache and Neurological Pain and Diagnostic Immunology of the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) participated in the study.
Headache Shortens Disease
To reach this conclusion, the investigators analyzed the symptoms and evolution of 130 Covid-19 patients who arrived at the Vall d’Hebron Emergency Department over three weeks between March and April 2020.
Although Covid-19 is a respiratory infection, all of them were preserved by a neurologist.
It was the most challenging time of the pandemic. Hospitals had to reorganize and doctors, of one specialty or another, turned to Covid-19 cases. Something that in the end has been positive for the study of the disease:
The fact that doctors visited part of the patients with different specialties allowed to carry out studies from another perspective. The study observed that of the 130 patients analyzed:
74.6% (97 patients) had headaches, although only 19.6% had a history of migraines previous to the illness.
In most, the headache was slight or moderate, but in a quarter of the patients, typically women and new people, it was more like a migraine. In 21.4% of patients with persistent headaches, this symptom was the first to appear.
Regarding the evolution of Covid-19, it was revealing. In the headache cases, the infection lasted approximately 24 days. While the Covid-19 without headache lasted 31 days. Thus, in headache patients, the illness was about a week shorter.
A Symptom that Persists
Headache a Sign of Covid is the study associates headache with a shorter duration of Covid-19, the truth is that it is an insidious symptom that takes a long time to go away.
Six weeks after arrival at the emergency room, the patients who had participated in the study were follow-up. It was originate that 37.8% still had headaches and did not respond to treatment.
This data reveals that headaches can persist once Covid is cured, even in people without a history of migraines.
Study Limitations
Indeed, the study does not include very severe or very mild cases of the disease (the latter did not go to the hospital). Therefore it has limitations. Despite this and based on the results obtained.
It is essential to change the concept that headache is a not very relevant symptom in patients with Covid-19 and, therefore, it is necessary to study its association in-depth to understand the evolution of the disease and improve treatment.
The researchers also originate an association between headache and loss of smell (anosmia) and taste (ageusia). Failure of these senses was more common in patients with headaches.
