Inpatient treatment of headache

An inpatient headache treatment unit provides a special environment for those patients whose headaches have failed to respond to outpatient therapy. Outpatient therapy may be precluded for a variety of treatment issues, including detoxification, initiation of copharmacy prophylactic medical therapy, and intravenous treatment for intractable chronic cluster headache and status migrainous headache. These complex medical treatments are viewed as some of the most valuable therapies by the patients and, at least in part, significantly decrease both headache indexes utilized in this survey. The various psychological, educational, and other adjunctive therapies utilized in an inpatient unit are considered beneficial by many patients. Psychological approaches are considered more useful to migrainous patients. Treatment failures may be due to variations in the etiology of chronic muscle contraction headache and posttraumatic headache. Denial of psychological factors in headache may also contribute to treatment failure. Habituation to analgesics and ergots may decrease patient response as compared with those not dependent.