Principles of headaches evaluation

Abstract

ABSTRACT However common tension-type headache is in epidemiologic population-based studies, migraine is the most common diagnosis in patients seeking treatment for headache in primary care. The appropriate evaluation of headache should be as follows: 1) To rule out the most serious underlying pathologies and to look for other secondary causes of headache, 2) To determine the type of primary headache using the patient's history as a primary diagnostic tool. Symptoms can always overlap, particularly between migraine and tension-type headache and between migraine and some secondary causes of headache (such as neurologic or systemic disease). A brief headache screen based only on anamnesis and physical examination data which direct to an underlying pathology is useful to primary care physicians in particular. An imaging study is not necessary in the vast majority of patients presenting with headache. Nevertheless, imaging (usually CT scan) is warranted in the patients outlined above.