Expert commentary -- unusual headache syndromes.

摘要

Headache medicine may be an arduous field. While identifyingand treating common headache disorders is often notdifficult, so many medical conditions may present with headacheas the first or chief complaint that the differential diagnosisof patients with headache may be overwhelming [2].The most common headache syndromes are primaryheadaches. They typically do not impose major diagnosticchallenges, although they are not always easy to treat. In theprimary headaches, headache is the “disease” itself. Failureto identify and to properly treat a primary headache willcause unnecessary burden to the patient [3–6]. As for thesecondary headaches, the headaches are the symptom ofanother disease. The situation is very different. Failure toidentify a secondary disease may represent a very ominoussituation. Not only may the patient face unnecessary suffering,but more concerning, a treatable condition may bemissed until it is too late [7, 8].