People who experience headaches and migraines might not be receiving correct and timely diagnoses from their GPs or other healthcare professionals, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has said.
The guidance will for the first time give GPs information on how to diagnose and treat the three most common types of headache; migraine, tension and cluster.
There are ten million people in the UK experiencing headaches, making headaches one of the most common health complaints.
Professor Mark Baker, Director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at Nice said: “Despite headaches being the most common neurological problem presented to GPs and neurologists, many people who experience them aren’t receiving accurate or timely diagnoses.
"Also, concerns about the possible underlying causes need to be appropriately managed in order to avoid unnecessary investigations, which can in turn lead to delays in people receiving adequate pain relief, for what can be an extremely disabling condition.
“Once published, we hope our guidance will support healthcare professionals in recognising and diagnosing the most common types of primary headache and reassure their patients that other possible causes have been excluded.”
GPs should recognise that headache is a valid medical disorder that can have a significant impact on patients' lives and their families' .
Overuse of medication can be a cause of headaches in people whose headaches have developed or worsened while on certain drugs, the draft guidance said.
Tension-headaches and migraines are the most common and can often be treated with over-the-counter medicines, such as aspirin, paracetamol or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen. In particular, migraines are reported to affect one in four women and one in twelve men in the UK.
Also in the consultation document, NICE proposes to advise that GPs and other healthcare professionals should offer a NSAID or paracetamol in combination with a triptan, a class of drug specifically for migraine and cluster headaches, as the two drugs together are more effective.
For people who prefer to only take one drug at a time for their migraines, the draft guideline proposes that healthcare professionals should consider monotherapy with a triptan, an NSAID, aspirin (900mg) or paracetamol, if these drugs have not already been tried before by themselves.
Professor Baker said: “Migraines are a major cause of absence from work or school and can cause much discomfort, so it is important the NHS offers treatments that are able to relieve pain as early as possible.
"Once we publish our final guideline later this summer, we hope its implementation will provide more effective and faster-acting pain relief and reduce unnecessary referrals and revisits. We welcome all feedback from our stakeholders during this public consultation.”