Diagnosis and treatment of muscle contraction (tension-type) headaches.

Acute tension-type headache is a very common condition that rarely is a problem in treatment. Chronic tension-type headache, however, is often a difficult therapeutic problem. The pathogenesis is not well understood, but both peripheral muscle contraction and central pain-modulating systems are probably involved. Therapy usually works best when multiple techniques are used, including pharmacologic, psychological, and physiologic modalities.