People who often suffer from headaches can suffer from airplane headache, better defined as a headache attributed to air travel. It is a form of headache, characterized by strong intensity and short duration, which develops during air travel, stronger in the take-off and landing phases – explains Dr. Vincenzo Tullo, specialist neurologist and Head of the Headache Clinic of Humanitas. – Taking an analgesic about an hour before the journey helps to reduce the intensity of the pain and in some cases it prevents it from appearing. The analgesics that can be used are anti-inflammatories, such as Naproxen or Ibuprofen, Paracetamol and also Triptans (analgesics usually used for migraines). Airplane headache is caused by a variation in the barometric pressure in the paranasal sinuses which has specific characteristics:
- Localization on the right or left part;
- Prevailing localization in the orbital and frontal region;
- Piercing or pulsating pain
- Pain which is not associated with vomiting, light disturbance and noise disturbance.
