Practice Guidelines
Principles of care
MIPCA has produced guidelines for the management of migraine and chronic headaches, based on the best available scientific evidence and clinical practice. Separate guidelines have been produced for the management of migraine, chronic daily headache (chronic tension-type headache, chronic migraine and medication overuse headache) and cluster headache. All the guidelines utilise common principles of care and diagnostic screening procedures. The principles of care are:
- Conduct specific consultations for headache.
- Institute a system of detailed history taking, and patient education and commitment to care, at the outset of the consultation.
- Utilise a new screening algorithm for the differential diagnosis of
headache, which can be confirmed by further questioning, if necessary.
As part of diagnosis, the possibility of sinister (secondary) headaches must be excluded from the outset. - Institute a process of management that is tailored to the needs of the individual patient. Assessing the impact of headache on the patient’s daily life is a key aspect of diagnosis and management.
- Prescribe only treatments that have objective evidence of favourable efficacy and tolerability.
- Utilise prospective follow-up procedures to monitor the success of treatment.
- Organise a team approach to headache management in primary care.
GP
Diagnostic