Are You Accurately Diagnosing Headaches?

A study recently presented at the American Headache Society’s Annual Scientific Meeting reviewed data on the effectiveness of office visit for patients who present with a chief complaint of headache. The study, presented by Richard B. Lipton, MD, of the Montefiore Headache Center, revealed that an “average [clinic] encounter only lasted about 11 minutes” with mostly close ended questions. This leads to less dialogue and may in turn lead to a less accurate diagnosis, leaving patients without the proper tools to manage their disease. The results shed light on a big problem in headache medicine, where a lack of communication between provider and patient can result in incorrect or no treatment at all for headache.

Differential Diagnosis

One of the most important elements to proper management of a headache patient is an accurate diagnosis.  For many patients with primary headaches, their physical examination will be essentially normal; therefore an accurate and thorough history is of the utmost importance. An important task during the first visit is to rule out secondary causes for headaches. Many secondary causes, including aneurysms or tumors, may present with headaches that have features of a primary headache, including migraine. It is very important to look for ‘red flags’ or elements of the history and exam that may point to another cause. 

SNOOP is a helpful mnemonic to guide physicians during the exam¹:

• Systemic symptoms: fever, weight loss, or the presence of secondary risk factors that predispose a patient to secondary headaches, including someone in an immunocompromised state (ex: HIV or cancer) requires further work up.
• Neurological signs or symptoms: finding a papilledema on fundoscopic exam that may signal increased intracranial pressure, for example, warrants a comprehensive neurological exam following the first visit.
• Old age: anyone presenting with first onset headache after age 50 warrants a work up for secondary causes.
• Onset: anyone with a headache that is quick or sudden in onset, sometimes described as “thunderclap,” requires an urgent work up.
• Pattern: those with a remarkable change in the frequency, severity, or type of headache usually require further work up.

Diagnosing Primary Headache

Once secondary headaches are ruled out, it is important to make an accurate diagnosis of the primary headache. The first point of contact for many patients with headaches is their primary care physician or a general neurologist, therefore it’s essential to become familiar or have access to the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD), now in its 3^rd Edition².  

This article originally appeared on Neurology Advisor