Headache History
Because most patients with headache have normal neurologic and general physical examinations, a thorough history is crucial to determining the etiology of a headache. The approach to the headache history given in Table 3 and discussed in the following sections facilitates the generation of a differential diagnosis and preliminary classification of the headache type based on the criteria established by the International Headache Society.3 This level of detail is also necessary to identify “red flags” that suggest an underlying organic disorder as the cause of headache.5