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Headache in the emergency department
L B Morgenstern1, J C Huber, H Luna-Gonzales
1Department of Neurology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston 77030, USA.
Headache
|July 5, 2001
Summary
Emergency department headaches often affect young women and may resolve with antiemetics. This study analyzed headache demographics, treatments, and outcomes in the ED.
Area of Science:
- Emergency Medicine
- Neurology
- Clinical Research
Background:
- Acute headache presentations pose a therapeutic challenge in emergency departments.
- Understanding patient demographics and clinical factors is crucial for effective management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct an observational study on the demographics, clinical factors, and therapeutic efficacy of patients presenting with headaches to the emergency department.
- To identify effective treatments for acute headache presentations.
Main Methods:
- Prospective ascertainment of patients with nontraumatic headache over a 16-month period.
- Abstraction of demographic and clinical information from medical records.
- Comparison of therapeutic efficacy using odds ratios and confidence intervals.
Main Results:
- 455 out of 38,730 screened patients presented with headache; 76% were women, mean age 37.
- Migraine diagnoses were more common in Non-Hispanic whites compared to other ethnicities.
- Antiemetics showed a trend toward superiority in headache resolution compared to other therapies.
Conclusions:
- Headache in the emergency department predominantly affects young women and involves lengthy wait times.
- A variety of treatments are employed, with antiemetics potentially being particularly effective for headache resolution.
- Further research into optimal emergency department headache management is warranted.