RT Book, Section
A1 Blumenthal, Harvey J.
A1 Rapoport, Alan M.
A2 Warfield, Carol A.
A2 Bajwa, Zahid H.
SR Print(0)
ID 3411571
T1 Chapter 20. Common Headache Syndromes
T2 Principles & Practice of Pain Medicine, 2e
YR 2004
FD 2004
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071443494
LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=3411571
RD 2024/04/19
AB Headache  is  one  of  the  most  common  painful  conditions  for  which  patients  consult  physicians.  Surveys  indicate  that  in  any  given  year,  more  than  90%  of  American  adults  will  suffer  some  kind  of  headache  or  head  pain.1  Fortunately,  very  few  headaches  are  caused  by  serious  organic  conditions,  and  most  headaches  are  actually  migraine  or  tension-type  headache.  The  first  step  in  treating  a  patient  with  headache  is  to  establish  an  accurate  diagnosis,  and  for  diagnostic  purposes  headaches  are  divided  into  primary  and  secondary  headache  disorders.  Secondary  headaches  have  an  underlying  cause,  such  as  infection,  eye  disease,  tumor,  aneurysm,  meningitis,  and  so  forth.  Primary  headache  disorders  are  benign  and  tend  to  recur.  These  headaches  are  caused  by  conditions  for  which  the  true  basis  has  not  yet  been  established,  but  altered  brain  serotonin  chemistry  clearly  plays  a  role  (see  Chapter  19  for  a  discussion  of  the  biology  of  primary  headaches).  Chapter  17  outlines  diagnostic  criteria  for  migraine,  tension-type  headache,  and  cluster  headache,  the  three  most  common  headache  syndromes.  In  this  chapter,  we  comment  on  differential  diagnosis,  diagnostic  testing,  and  management  of  patients  with  these  common  primary  headache  disorders.