[Headache: classification/nomenclature].

Abstract

Our multidimensional classification of headache uses on the one hand the phenomenological main criteria. Id est: attack-featured headaches versus the more permanent headaches. On the other hand the main etiological factors have to be traced: heredity, vasomotor-dysfunction, disturbances of cervical spine, metabolic disturbances, psychodynamics. As the majority of 90% chronical headaches have a multifactorial etiology, these factors have to be taken into consideration one by one. Usually more than one is to be found. Such differential diagnosis forms already a clear way into differentiated therapy. Our classification is conform to patient and to daily medical practice, easy to execute and, last not least, has a statistically proven small inter-examiner variation. The nowadays discussed IHS-classification we see contrarely to ours and to the demands of a good classification. Same counts for the classification that is put on by the ICD-9. First is to big, second is to small to be useful. Moreover, both show quite a number of clearly definable faults, which are opposite to clinical reality.