Have you ever experienced these headache characteristics or had medical history as mentioned below?
1 Severe and sudden headache that develops within seconds or minutes.
2 Neurological abnormal signs and symptoms, e.g. arm-leg weakness, sudden numbness on one side of the body, sudden trouble seeing, convulsion or fainting.
3 Fever with chills, sweating at night and unintentional weight loss.
4 An increase in headache severity or frequency.
5 Headache characteristics have been recently changed.
6 Headache develops while coughing, sneezing, bowel straining, exerting or changing positions.
7 First headache develops when aged over 65.
8 Medical history of cancer.
9 Medical history of being immunocompromised or using immunosuppressant agents.
10 Papilledema was found.
11 Headaches during pregnancy and postpartum.
12 Headache with autonomic abnormalities, e.g. red eye, watery eye, runny nose and drooping eyelid.
13 Posttraumatic onset of headache.
14 Painkiller overuse or new drug at onset of headache.
Reference:
  • Do TP, RemmersA, Schytz HW, et al. Red and orange flags for secondary headaches in clinical practice: SNNOOP10 list. Neurology. 2019;92(3): 134-144.