Timothy J. Steiner - Societal Impact of Headache: Burden, Costs and Response

The purpose of this Series, endorsed by the European Headache Federation (EHF), is to describe in detail all aspects of headache disorders that are of importance in primary care and the hospital setting, including pathophysiology, diagnosis, management, comorbidities, and issues in particular patient groups. A key feature of the Series is its multidisciplinary approach, and it will have wide appeal to internists, rheumatologists, neurologists, pain doctors, general practitioners, primary care givers, and pediatricians. Readers will find that the Series assists not only in understanding, recognizing, and treating the primary headache disorders, but also in identifying the potentially dangerous underlying causes of secondary headache disorders and avoiding mismanagement and overuse of medications for acute headache, which are major risk factors for disease aggravation. Each volume is designed to meet the needs of both more experienced professionals and medical students, residents, and trainees.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11801

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Headache disorders are ubiquitous, highly prevalent and disabling. In the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, tension-type headache and migraine were recognized as the second and third most prevalent disorders in the world. Headache is experienced by nearly everybody at some time or times in their lives. At any one time, at least 40% of the worlds adults have personal experience of one or more headache disorders, while recent surveys suggest the proportion of adults with headache on any particular day exceeds 1 in 20. In the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016, migraine was ranked as the second highest cause of disability overall and first in young adults (aged 1549 years).

The high prevalence of headache disorders gives rise to ill health and disability on a very substantial scale, which is being increasingly acknowledged. This monograph considers the public health perspective, and societal impact, of these conditions. While our understanding of the global burden attributable to headache disorders is still incomplete and our knowledge of healthcare resource allocation to headache is scant, there is good evidence to indicate that very large numbers of people disabled by headache do not receive effective healthcare. The barriers responsible for this vary throughout the world, but poor awareness in a context of limited resources generallyand for healthcare in particularis undoubtedly high among them.