Headache Therapeutics
INTRODUCTION TO HEADACHE THERAPEUTICS Print Section Listen Headache is one of the most common complaints among patients presenting to an outpatient practice. Once secondary causes of headache are excluded and…
Diagnosis and Management of Cervicogenic Headache
INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Neck pain and cervical muscle tightness are common and prominent symptoms of primary headache disorders such as tension-type headache (TTH) and migraine.1 Conversely, head pain referred…
Historical Features in Primary Headache Syndromes
INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Headache is a nearly universal symptom. As an example of the prevalence of headache, a study of 410 patients who had visited a primary care internal…
Pathophysiology of Headaches
INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Headaches are estimated to affect more than 90% of the general population at some point in their lives1 and may be encountered by physicians in a…
Approach to the Patient with Headache
INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Among the complaints from patients presenting to outpatient practices, headache is one of the most common. Even the most experienced providers often have a difficult time…
Psychological Aspects of Chronic Pain
INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Pain is a complex, perceptual experience, defined as an “unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of…
Management of Difficult Patients in the Chronic Pain Setting
WHO ARE DIFFICULT PATIENTS? Print Section Listen There are patients in every practice who give the doctor and staff a feeling of “heartsink” every time their names are seen on…
New Prospects for Alleviation of Anger in the Context of Chronic Pain
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF ANGER Print Section Listen WHAT IS ANGER? Anger has been defined with different shades of emphasis, but in psychology, there is general agreement that anger is a subjective…
The Placebo Effect in the Clinical Setting: Considerations for the Pain Practitioner
INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen “The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.”—Sir William Osler BACKGROUND Print Section Listen Henry Beecher’s classic 1955 study…
Work Disability and Chronic Pain: A Review of Psychosocial and Environmental Factors
INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Disability and chronic pain commonly co-occur, particularly in the case of diagnoses with controversial etiologies. When disability impacts work, the contributory factors become even more complex,…
