PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Krishna Chinthapalli
AU  - Anne-Marie Logan
AU  - Rohit Raj
AU  - Niranjanan Nirmalananthan
TI  - Assessment of acute headache in adults – what the general physician needs to know
AID  - 10.7861/clinmedicine.18-5-422
DP  - 2018 Oct 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 422--427
VI  - 18
IP  - 5
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/18/5/422.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/18/5/422.full
SO  - Clin Med2018 Oct 01; 18
AB  - Headache is common. Up to 5% of attendances to emergency departments and acute medical units are due to headache. Headache is classified as either primary (eg migraine, cluster headache) or secondary to another cause (eg meningitis, subarachnoid haemorrhage). Even in the acute setting the majority of cases are due to primary causes. The role of the attending physician is to take a comprehensive history to diagnose and treat benign headache syndromes while ruling out sinister aetiologies. This brief article summarises the approach to assessment of headache presenting in acute and emergency care.