Headache assessment and management.

THE LIFETIME PREVALENCE OF headache is more than 90%. In recent population-based surveys of US adults, nearly 25% annually report recurrent episodes of severe headache and 4% daily or neardaily headache. Prescription or nonprescription products are used by 9% of US adults each week to treat headache, matching hypertension as the primary reason for medication use. The majority of patients presenting to physicians will have primary headache syndromes such as tension-type, cluster, and migraine. Less than 2% of patients in office and 4% of patients in emergency department settings will be found to have headaches secondary to significant pathology.