The symptoms of occipital neuralgia can come on suddenly and without warning. Symptoms include a shooting, throbbing, burning, or aching pain that can last from seconds to minutes. Occipital neuralgia is a type of headache that causes symptoms of burning, aching, and throbbing pain in the back of the head and neck.

Context Explanation

Causes can include infection, irritation, or trauma to the occipital nerves. Treatment of occipital neuralgia depends upon the underlying cause. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke defines occipital neuralgia as a rare neurological condition that involves shooting, shocking, throbbing, burning, or aching pain and ... Occipital neuralgia is a headache disorder that can cause sudden, sharp head pain.

Insight Material

Most people experience symptom relief with the right treatment. Occipital neuralgia is a headache disorder that affects nerves that run through your scalp (the occipital nerves). It causes pain in the back of your head or behind the eyes. Irritation of one of these nerves anywhere along its course can cause a shooting, zapping, electric, or tingling pain very similar to that of trigeminal neuralgia, only with symptoms on one side of the scalp rather than in the face. Occipital neuralgia has rather obvious red flags, and it is much more comfortable to identify it sooner than later.

Final Conclusion

Those initial explosions of pain, the soreness on your head, the numbness on your head–you need not have a theatrical body. Occipital neuralgia occurs when there's an injury or inflammation of the occipital nerves. These nerves run from the scalp through the top of the spinal cord. When there's damage or inflammation to the nerves, affected individuals may experience headache pain at the base of their skulls or the back of their head. What does occipital neuralgia feel like? Pain from occipital neuralgia is felt in the back of the head in the occipital nerves.

Occipital neuralgia can feel like a sharp, shooting pain in the back of the head, usually on one side. It might be described as a throbbing or burning sensation. Occipital neuralgia is a distinct headache marked by sudden and recurring jabs of piercing, throbbing pain. The pain: Comes from the base of the skull in the back of the head.