Headache disorders: differentiating and managing the common subtypes

Abstract

Headache is an extremely common symptom and collectively headache disorders are among the most common of the nervous system disorders, with a prevalence of 48.9% in the general population.1 Headache affects people of all ages, races and socioeconomic status and is more common in women. Some headaches are extremely debilitating and have significant impact on an individual’s quality of life, imposing huge costs to healthcare and indirectly to the economy in general. Only a small proportion of headache disorders require specialist input. The vast majority can be effectively treated by a primary care physician or generalist with correct clinical diagnosis that requires no special investigation. Primary headache disorders – migraine, tension headache and cluster headache – constitute nearly 98% of all headaches; however, secondary headaches are important to recognise as they are serious and may be life threatening. This article provides an overview of the most common headache disorders and discusses the red flag symptoms that help identify serious causes that merit urgent specialist referral. The current pathway of headache care in the UK is discussed with a view to proposing a model that might fit well in the financially constrained National Health Service (NHS) and with new NHS reforms. The role of the national society, the British Association for the Study of Headache, and the patient organisations such as Migraine Trust in headache education to the professionals and the general public in shaping headache care in the UK is described. The article concludes by summarising evidence-based management of common headache diagnoses.

Spectrum of Disease and Prescription Pattern for Outpatients with Neurological Disorders: An Empirical Pilot Study in Bangladesh

“…Statistics showed that every year about 6.7 million people are dying owing to stroke, which is one of the principal causes of death in developing countries and stroke accounts for more than 80% of deaths [20, 21]. Headache disorders are also the most common disorders of the nervous system [22]. There are various types of headache disorders; usually the percentage of the adult population with headache is 47%, followed by 38% of tension-type headache, followed by 3% of chronic headache and 10% of migraine that persists for more than 15 days per month [23].…”

Multiple fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm in medical diagnosis

“…These include: Migraine, Tension-Type Headache (TTH), Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias (TACs) and other primary headache disorders. Migraine and TTH are the most prevalent and affect 75%-95% of the total headache population while the TACs headache is uncommon, but often misdiagnosed and mismanaged [22].…”

Psychiatric Co-Morbidities in Patients Presenting with Headache: A Prospective Study

“…These pain-sensitive structures include structures such as the skin, muscles, blood vessels and nerves (outside cranium) or large intracranial arteries or veins, dura and dural vessels, and cranial nerves (intracranial) 1 . On the other hand, the structures like brain parenchyma, ependymal lining of the ventricles and choroid plexus are all pain insensitive.…”