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Headache

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Family Medicine

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Abstract

Headache is an almost universal experience, afflicting patients of any age or characteristic, although it is reported to be particularly frequent in young adults. Nearly 60% of men and 76% of women aged 12 to 29 years report at least one headache within any 4-week period.1 The societal costs of headache are enormous but can be estimated only indirectly in terms of days lost from work or school, expenditures on medical services, and consumption of nonprescription medications. The total burden of suffering due to this symptom, including disruption of relationships and loss of normal activities, is incalculable. Although headache is given as the principal reason for more than 10 million physician office visits per year2 and is consistently found to be one of the most frequent presenting complaints in family practice,3 it is important to realize that most headache episodes are not brought to medical attention.

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Authors
  1. Anne D. Walling
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR, 97201, USA

    Robert B. Taylor M.D. (Professor and Chairman) (Professor and Chairman)

  2. Department of Family Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA

    Alan K. David M.D. (The Fred Lazarus, Jr., Professor and Director) (The Fred Lazarus, Jr., Professor and Director)

  3. Department of Family Medicine, St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, St. Louis, MO, 63141, USA

    Thomas A. Johnson Jr. M.D. (Chairman) (Chairman)

  4. Department of Family Medicine, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Jackson, MS, 39216, USA

    D. Melessa Phillips M.D. (Professor and Chairman) (Professor and Chairman)

  5. Department of Family Medicine, University of California—Irvine College of Medicine, Orange, CA, 92697, USA

    Joseph E. Scherger M.D., M.P.H. (Associate Dean for Primary Care and Chair) (Associate Dean for Primary Care and Chair)

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Walling, A.D. (1998). Headache. In: Taylor, R.B., David, A.K., Johnson, T.A., Phillips, D.M., Scherger, J.E. (eds) Family Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2947-4_63

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2947-4_63

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-2949-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-2947-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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