Headaches are common in the emergency room (ER). In fact, headache is the fifth most common reason for a visit to an emergency department (ED), representing two million visits per year. Of the acute headaches, migraine is the most frequent diagnosis made in an emergency department.
However, according to commentary from Randolph W. Evans, MD, and Benjamin W. Friedman, MD, MS, in the August 2011 issue of the journal Headache, ER physicians only receive two hours of structured primary headache lectures per year. When a headache patient appears in the ER, the ER physician will likely be focused on eliminating the possibility of life-threatening diseases and may, therefore, lump anything non-threatening into the category of migraine or nonspecific headache. Evans and Friedman admit that while medications used for migraine may still help other headache types, patients need an accurate diagnosis for longer-term therapy and treatment.
