Occipital Neuralgia Symptoms

Occipital Neuralgia Symptoms


Occipital neuralgia causes pain, chronic headache, dysfunction and damage to the nerves and muscles of the occipital region commonly localized in the head and around or over the top of the head, sometimes up to the eyebrow or behind the eye, and it may result in a number of symptoms. Occipital Neuralgia is often misdiagnosed at first, most commonly as tension headache or a migraine leading to treatment failure or addiction.

Occipital Neuralgia Common symptoms


Can cause very intense pain that feels like a sharp, jabbing, electric shock in the back of the head and neck. The symptoms vary in intensity among individuals. Other symptoms of occipital neuralgia may include:
  • Aching, burning, and throbbing pain that typically starts at the base of the head and radiates to the scalp
  • Pain on one or both sides of the head
  • Pain behind the eye
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Tender scalp
  • Pain when moving the neck
  • Increased sensitivity of the skin along the path of the damaged nerve, so that any touch or pressure is felt as pain
  • Numbness along the path of the nerve
    • In the same location each episode
    • Sharp, stabbing
    • May come and go (intermittent), or be constant, burning pain
    • May get worse when the area is moved
  • Weakness or complete paralysis of muscles supplied by the same nerve
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Occipital Neuralgia Symptoms