ABSTRACT
Headache is a common emergency department (ED) complaint, representing around 2% of visits to American EDs (1-3). More than five million ED patients report headache as one of three chief reasons for the ED visit (4). The vast majority of these headaches are primary headaches or headaches due to benign systemic illness such as upper respiratory infections and other febrile illnesses (5,6). The vast majority of primary headaches in the ED are migraines, with tension-type headaches comprising a small, but significant minority (5,6). The goals for emergency physicians and neurologists consulting in EDs on headache patients are to facilitate the correct diagnosis, initiate migraine-abortive therapy when appropriate while controlling pain in the ED, and provide the patient with an appropriate discharge plan that includes a diagnosis, a disease-specific education sheet, prescriptions, referrals, and reasonable expectations.
