Management of patients with headache and cervicalgia in outpatient practice

Abstract

The management of patients with headache (cephalgia) concurrent with neck pain (cervicalgia) remains an urgent problem of modern medicine. Concurrent cervicalgia in cephalgia substantially lowers quality of life in these patients and is encountered in more than half the patients. Cervicalgia is considered as a risk factor of migraine and tension headache attacks. Cervicogenic headache is assigned to one of the most common forms of secondary cephalgias. It is shown that patients with daily headache have functional insufficiency of the antinociceptive system that plays an important role in the maintenance and chronization of neck pain. The diagnosis of different cephalgic syndromes and the identification of causes of cervicalgia commonly raise problems in a physician; the rate of misdiagnoses and hence inadequate treatment has been high so far. The detection of various comorbid conditions, including cervicalgia, in a patient with cephalgia makes it possible to use effective treatment and to achieve good results.