Introduction
Despite the high prevalence of recurrent headache disorders—
principally migraine and tension-type headache—
and the substantial burden of public ill-health they generate
[1, 2], there are considerable variations worldwide in the
nature, scope, organization, quantity and quality of medical
care provided for these illnesses. At the same time, there is good evidence that optimal care is rarely achieved. There are multiple clinical, social and political barriers to both provision of and access to effective headache care, a recent publication by the World Health Organization stated: ‘‘The facts and figures presented … illuminate the worldwide neglect of a major cause of public ill-health and reveal the inadequacies of responses to it in countries throughout the world’’ [2].