NERVOUS HEADACHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9452, 24 August 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

NERVOUS HEADACHES.

There arc good many kinds of headache.

In these days the nervous headache is a very distinct variety. It is generally in front of the head, across the over the eyes. But it may be in other parts— at the top of the head, at one or both sides, at the back, or all over. It is painful, depressing, disabling. A man feels at the height of the paroxysm like a hunter who has galloped his legs clean off, and.who could riot leap a 3-foot ditch to save his life. The spur is of no use, neither is the whip. The pain in the head is worse to bear than either, and the patient will rather endure both whip and spur than make any kind of effort which will make head pain worse. Physic by itself is of no use. There is not a single drug known to medical science which will of itself at nee and permanently cure a nervous he:why;he. On the other hand, drugs are not al ways needed. A complete change of air and circumstances will usually take away the pain in ten or twelve hours. Perfect rest, of a duration proportioned to the severity and long continuance of the symptoms, will make the cure permanent. There are, of course, methods of relieving or diminishing the pain until such time as it may be,..possible to obtain the complete rest. But the rest is the thing to be secured at all costs. If not, the pain goes from bad to worse, and the risk from less to greater. The final consequence it is impossible to predict, except that a breakdown is sooner or later inevitable, and the breakdown may be for a year or for a lifetime. A nervous headache is a danger signal; if it be frequent, the danger is increased ; if it be continuous, a a catastrophe is imminent. The driver must put on his break at all hazar.lt>, or lie will probably soon have a ler-p for his life. There are very few sets of circumstances in which it is a man's duty to go on with his work when he is in this condition, at all risks. Even a threatened bankruptcy had better be risked than a threatened life. Besides, a man who is in the unyielding grip of a permanent nervous headache is not really the best judge of his own circumstances. lie magnifies and distorts things amazingly. He taker counsel of his fears, and abandons Lis hopes and courage altogether. Rest, we repeat—immediate and srlicient rc\ —is the sovereign remedy. A fortnight at ones may be better than a year six weeks hojico. — Hospital.