Abortive treatment, on the other hand, is considered the first line of defense against headaches by taking in over-the-counter painkillers like aspirin, acetaminophen like tylenol, panadol or ibuprofen. Usually, physicians prescribe a medication that is a combination of analgesic with other substances in order to increase its effects. What you can do is to take over-the-counter medication such as oral analgesics like aspirin, ibuprofen, or paracetamol can provide relief and are best if taken as soon as symptoms start to occur. But when the headache becomes worse, make sure that you visit your health care provider because it can also be an indication of more serious illnesses like meningitis or the inflammation of the meninges or membrane around a person s brain; sub-arachnoid haemorrhage due a bleeding in the space between the brain and the arachnoid layer of the meninges, stroke, blood pressure, brain tumor, and temporal arteritis due to the inflammation of the arteries in the scalp. Greatly affecting men instead of women, cluster headaches are characterized by severe pain usually centered in one eye that leads to swelling and watering of the affected area and severe and unbearable pain in the head. Triggered by alcohol and cigarettes, experts say that there is no concrete cause of this type yet. When the pain attacks, one may notice the drooping of the lids from the affected eye as well as nasal congestion on the affected side. The pain of a cluster headache is no joke. It tends to be so sever that some people say that it is nothing compared to things like childbirth or migraines. At the height of a cluster headache attack, even morphine does very little to assuage the pain. This goes with all types of over-the-counter medications. It is very important to know the active ingredients in each headache pain medication. Make sure that you read the label of any medication that you plan to take. Different drugs can have different reactions and it would be helpful if you know beforehand what type of drugs that you have allergic reactions to. Others feel that migraines are actually hereditary and people with history of migraines in the family will most likely suffer from the problem. A migraine headache should not be confused with the common headache, which a person may suffer from every now and then. They are poles different from one another.