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Literature highlights

Headache diaries help identifying coexisting headache disorders

This study evaluated the level of agreement between headache information obtained by clinical interviews and headache diaries in subjects who frequently suffered from headache and were participating in an epidemiological survey of the Danish general population conducted a few years ago. A total of 106 subjects were interviewed and asked to fill in a diary for a period of 4-8 weeks; 46% completed the study. For migraine the diary and clinical diagnoses demonstrated agreement in 82% of cases; for tension-type headache they demonstrated agreement in 87% and a good agreement of frequency of tension-type headache was also obtained. In migraine, but not in tension-type headache, accompanying symptoms tended to be overestimated in the interview. The diary was not helpful for establishing a diagnosis of migraine with aura, but proved valuable in distinguishing between migraine and tension-type headache and in the identification of multiple headache types in the same subject. The authors recommended the combined use of the headache diary as a support to the direct clinical interview in clinical practice.

Assessment of headache diagnosis. A comparative population study of a clinical interview with a diagnostic headache diary.

Phillip D, Lyngberg A, Jensen R.

Cephalalgia 2007;27:1-8.

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