Practical Assessment and Treatment of the Patient with Headaches in the Emergency Department and Urgent Care Clinic

Migraine is an extremely common condition affecting approximately 28 million Americans. Fully 1 in every 6 adult women suffers from this malady. Patients with migraine are frequently seen in the Emergency Room and Urgent Care Clinic for acute treatment of their headaches. ER and Urgent Care physicians generally have little or no formal training in treating these patients. Consequently, they often feel less comfortable ruling out secondary causes of headaches and using appropriate headache treatment medications and procedures. Practical Assessment and Treatment of the Patient with Headaches in the Emergency Department and Urgent Care Clinic covers all aspects of acute headache care, including care of the child and adolescent with acute headaches, treatment of pregnant and breastfeeding women with acute headaches and appropriate evaluation of secondary headaches. Representing an important milestone in the care of patients with headache, this is the first resource available to exclusively address the issue of headache treatment in the acute care setting. Including protocols and strategies that can be used right away, Practical Assessment and Treatment of the Patient with Headaches in the Emergency Department and Urgent Care Clinic provides information about lesser known, but effective strategies such as greater occipital nerve blocks that can be easily learned and incorporated in the acute care setting. Emphasizing the continuity of care that is so vital to keep headache patients from returning to the ER and UCC for acute treatment, Practical Assessment and Treatment of the Patient with Headaches in the Emergency Department and Urgent Care Clinic is an invaluable addition to the literature.