Predicting Poor Pain and Functional Outcomes After Discharge From the Emergency Department With a Primary Headache

The majority of the 5 million people who arrive at Emergency Departments (ED) with a headache every year are suffering from an acute exacerbation of a chronic, recurrent headache disorder. The role of the ED in treating these patients has been ill-defined. Often emergency physicians will treat the acute exacerbation and will not attend to the natural history of the disease. However, about two thirds of primary headache patients will suffer a recurrent headache in the 24 hours after discharge from the ED. And, many patients will continue to suffer recurrent headaches for months after their ED discharge.

The purpose of this study is to learn how often headaches recur and to try to find a way to predict who will have a recurrent headache after ED discharge.

After standard ED treatment for headache, participants in the study will be asked to answer questions about prior headaches and medical history, and some census-like questions about race/ethnicity, salary, and education via a 20-minute interview with a research associate. The researchers will follow-up with 10-minute telephone calls to each participant's home in 24 hours and in 3 months with additional questions. Total length of time for study participation is approximately 40 minutes.