Over at NPR, the Shots blog reports that Americans get $1 billion (yes, with a "B") worth of brain scans every year -- because they have a headache. That's according to research at the University of Michigan.
Headaches are one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor -- up to a quarter of all doctor visits, says Shots.
Presumably people are getting the scans because they're worried that headache is a sign of something much more scary -- say a brain tumor.
There's just one problem. Most headaches are just that -- a headache.
From the Shots post:
(S)ince headaches are almost never caused by a tumor or other serious brain problem, that $1 billion is money down the drain, according to Dr. Brian Callaghan, the assistant professor of neurology who led the study.
"It's such a big number," Callaghan told Shots. "It's just an incredible number of MRIs and CTs that people get."
From 2007 to 2010, people visited the doctor 51 million times for headache-related problems, according to a national database of outpatient visits. And 12 percent of the time, the doctors sent their patients for a brain scan. Those numbers are on the rise, the analysis found, even though guidelines urge doctors to shun the scans. The results were published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
I'm guilty of sending part of that billion down the drain. A few years ago, I was driving on the highway with my two children in the back seat. I glanced down, then back at the road, and suddenly was seeing double. I managed to pull over but was very shaken. I didn't know if I was having a stroke. But over a few minutes, the symptoms subsided. I won't drag you through everything I did next, but in short, I got home safely and made an appointment with the doctor.