Help
Wanted
If you are looking for more intensive treatment for your headache disorders, try one of the following facilities:
Diamond Headache Clinic 1460 North Halsted St., Suite 501 Chicago, IL 60642( 800) 432-3224 www. diamondheadache. com
Diamond Inpatient Headache Unit * Saint Joseph Hospital, 9th Floor 2900 North Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL 60657 www. diamondheadache. com / headache-treatments / inpatient-unit * Patients must be evaluated at the clinic before admission.
Cleveland Clinic IMATCH and Center for Headache and Facial Pain Clinic 9500 Euclid Ave. – T33 Cleveland, OH 44195( 216) 636-5860 or( 866) 588-2264 my. clevelandclinic. org / head ache _ center / imatch. aspx
University of Michigan Headache and Neuropathic Pain Program Burlington Office Center Headache and Neuropathic Pain Clinic 325 E. Eisenhower Pkwy., Suite 100 Ann Arbor, MI 48108( 734) 615-7246 www. uofmhealth. org / medical-services / migraineheadache-face-pain
Houston Headache Clinic 1213 Hermann Drive, Suite 820 Houston, TX 77004( 713) 528-1916 www. houstonheadache clinic. com
The Pain Center at Cedars-Sinai Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Mark Goodson Building 444 S. San Vicente Blvd., Suite 1101 Los Angeles, CA 90048( 800) 233-2771 www. cedars-sinai. edu / Patients / Programs-and- Services / Pain-Center
Michigan Headache Clinic 1675 Watertower Place, Suite 600 East Lansing, MI 48823( 517) 324-3445 www. michiganheadache. com
There are many factors that contribute to complex headaches, which is why it takes a variety of approaches and techniques to create an effective treatment strategy. Regardless of whether a patient is overusing medication or simply doesn’ t recognize his or her triggers, the comprehensive care found at an inpatient headache clinic is designed to address all aspects of the disease.
“ There’ s an unrecognized need for inpatient headache care,” Wenzel says.“ Patients don’ t know what to do— they just keep sucking down more medicine. If we identify these people sooner and get them treated sooner, we can prevent them from coming to our clinic.”
Intensive Care
Although an inpatient clinic offers a wide range of benefits, most patients do not require such intensive treatment and might be able to find relief at an outpatient clinic, Dr. Cooper says.
“ Development of outpatient detoxification programs, including those focused on opioid medications, has allowed many patients to be successfully treated as an outpatient,” Dr. Cooper says.
For people with complex headaches, The Cleveland Clinic offers an intensive outpatient headache program, called the Interdisciplinary Method for the Assessment and Treatment of Chronic Headache( IMATCH). This is a three-week, structured day-hospital program that takes a multidisciplinary approach, just like an inpatient clinic. The first week is focused primarily on using intravenous infusions to clear patients’ systems of medications that may be contributing to their headaches or on treating chronic daily headache. The next two weeks provide a combination of medical and psychological treatment, education, physical therapy and group sessions that enable patients to control their pain once they complete the program.
“ The goal is to shift the locus of control to the patient— to give them the tools to manage their pain without resorting to the excessive use of medication,” says Stewart Tepper, MD, professor of medicine( neurology) at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. While outpatient care can be helpful, there are circumstances for which a patient needs to be referred to an inpatient clinic. For example, if the patient shows symptoms of withdrawal, has a drug addiction or has a fragile psychiatric state( e. g., depression or previous suicide attempts).
“ When a patient goes to an inpatient headache program, it’ s not a detox program, it’ s not a psychology program and they’ re not walking around in a drafty hospital robe,” says Edmund Messina, MD, director of the Michigan Headache Clinic.“ With inpatient care, patients are actively taught about headaches and given therapy and infusions, as well as other medical strategies that might not be safe or practical in the outpatient sector.”
It’ s important, he says, for people to realize that complex headaches warrant complex care and that headache sufferers should not simply accept chronic headaches as part of their daily life.
“ Most headache treatment is done in outpatient headache clinics, but there are times when an inpatient stay is essential,” Dr. Messina says.“ That is why it is essential for regional inpatient centers to exist. It’ s not OK for people to suffer with headaches.” HW
www. headwisemag. org | National Headache Foundation 43