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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