1. Headache disorders impose burden on people throughout the world

• Headache disorders are real, neurobiological and often lifelong illnesses.
• They are common throughout the world, affecting men, women and children.
• They are painful, and disabling:
  - WHO ranks migraine 19th amongst world causes of disability;
  - migraine is the cause of an estimated 400,000 lost days from work or school every year per million of the population in developed countries;
  - other headache disorders are collectively responsible for even larger losses.

2. Effective treatments that would lessen this burden are within reach

• In almost all cases, effective headache treatment requires no expensive equipment, tests or specialists.
• The five essential components of effective treatment are:
  - awareness of the problem;
  - correct diagnosis;
  - avoidance of mismanagement;
  - appropriate lifestyle modifications and
  - informed use of cost-effective drugs.

3. The principal cause maintaining the burden of headache is failure of health systems to provide existing effective treatments to people who need them

• Artificial barriers throughout the world prevent access to headache care.
• Headache disorders are unrecognized as requiring health care or have low priority.
• Mismanagement makes burden worse: overuse of headache medication is the cause of daily headache in many adults and children.
• Large gaps exist between the need for treatment and its provision so that burdens persist that could be alleviated.

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