Mark W. Green - Chronic Headache: A Comprehensive Guide to Evaluation and Management

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Chronic daily headache occurs in 3 and 5% of the population worldwide. While not as common as many other primary headache disorders, the various chronic daily headaches are associated with greater healthcare utilization, loss of productivity, and relatively poor quality of life. In many forms of chronic daily headache, they represent the end stage of headache.

Chronic daily headache is not a diagnosis but a constellation of symptoms. The headache needs to be evaluated with a thorough understanding of the history, careful examination of the patient, appropriate diagnostic studies, consultation with colleagues, and ongoing assessment of the patient leading to the appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

This book hopes to clarify the diagnosis of chronic daily headache disorders, provide an understanding of the underlying biological substrates, provide guidance on the use of diagnostic testing and additional consultations, and develop treatment strategies with the greatest potential to alleviate the burden of these patients through the highest quality of care.

The book includes an examination of chronic daily headache, the role of behavioral medicine, and the important elements of the history. Following are the major forms of these disorders, the role of diagnostic testing and treatment. The underlying biology of these disorders is reviewed and the impact of these headaches in society is examined. The risk factors that lead patients to transform episodic primary headache disorders into the chronic form are examined. Invasive and neuromodulatory techniques are discussed. Somewhat by way of review and summary we close with a section on the classification of these disorders.

It is the belief of the authors that this logical approach to chronic daily headache will provide a greater understanding of these disorders leading to effective quality care for patients and reduces the burden they experience.