Headache

Headaches of a new type, pattern, or severity occur commonly in ME/CFS.

Prevalence

 * Katrina Berne, PhD, reports a prevalence of 75-95% for headache, and 50% for daily headache.


 * In a 2001 Belgian study, 87.8% of patients meeting the Fukuda criteria and 92.0% of patients meeting the Holmes criteria, in a cohort of 2073 CFS patients, reported headaches.

Symptom recognition

 * In the Canadian Consensus Criteria, pain is a required criteria for diagnosis. It requires that "there is a significant degree of myalgia. Pain can be experienced in the muscles, and/or joints, and is often widespread and migratory in nature. Often there are significant headaches of new type, pattern or severity."
 * In the Fukuda criteria, the symptom of headaches of a new type, pattern, or severity can be used to help form a diagnosis.
 * In the Holmes criteria, generalized headaches (of a type, severity, or pattern that is different from headaches the patient may have had in the premorbid state) are an optional criteria for diagnosis, under the section Minor Symptom Criteria.

Headaches that start after the onset of COVID-19 abs persistent are a potential symptom of Long COVID in the World Health Organization's definition.