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Headaches have been part of your daily life for so long, you can’ t even remember when they started.
You’ ve tried everything— over-the-counter medications, prescription painkillers, herbal supplements. You’ ve changed your diet. You’ ve changed your sleep habits. You’ ve stopped going out with friends and family. But no matter what you do, the incapacitating headaches keep coming back.
For a select and unfortunate group of headache sufferers, this extreme scenario is the status quo. Despite doing everything they can to treat their headaches, their pain is persistent, severe and debilitating. Unique cases like this warrant unique care. That’ s where inpatient headache clinics come in.
Inpatient headache care is a multidisciplinary treatment approach administered by medical professionals who specialize in complex headache cases, says Wade Cooper, DO, director of the Headache and Neuropathic Pain Program at the University of Michigan. This type of care provides a host of benefits, including access to a team of specialists, close medical observation for more difficult cases and intensive therapeutic options, such as IV medications, that are not available at home or in most acute care settings.
For patients who can’ t find relief elsewhere, inpatient headache clinics can provide tools to reduce pain and improve quality of life.
From Ridicule to Reverence
The roots of inpatient headache care date back to the 1980s, when Seymour Diamond, MD, executive chairman of the National Headache Foundation and founder and director emeritus of the Diamond Headache Clinic, established the first dedicated acute inpatient headache unit at Bethany Methodist Hospital in Chicago.
www. headwisemag. org | National Headache Foundation 41