New daily-persistent headache

Abstract

Chronic daily headache (CDH) is a descriptive term that encompasses 4 different headache disorders, each of which is characterized by frequent headaches. Primary CDH subtypes of long duration (i.e., 4 hours or more) are chronic migraine, chronic tension-type headache, hemicrania continua, and new daily-persistent headache (NDPH). NDPH, while not as common as chronic migraine or chronic tension-type headache, is common enough to be part of the general neurologist's practice, and is seen often in the headache specialist's office. First described in 1986,1 it gained acceptance when it was placed within the Silberstein-Lipton (S-L) criteria for chronic daily headache in 1994.2 The critical feature of the original description and the subsequent S-L description was the onset: daily headache starts abruptly without a background of frequent or worsening headache. Unfortunately, its diagnosis using International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD)–II3 criteria has been mired in controversy based on 2 separate issues: 1) the disparate descriptions of the degree …