Pain & Headache: A Continuum

We hope that you enjoyed reading last month's The Range of Headache & Pain Disorders. In this second part, we discuss the continuum of these conditions with 8 additional topics relevant to practicing neurologists. These include Telemedicine for Pain & Headacheby Drs. Wahezi, Duarte, Sidarthan, Sehgal, Kim, and Argoff, the Challenges of Pain in Fybromyalgia by Drs. Russ, Barron, and Backonja and Spinal Pain: Acute & Chronic Treatments by Drs. Bhullar, Portal, Lee, and Argoff. Specific procedures that can be considered for the management of chronic pain and various types of headache are reviewed in Implantable Neuromodulation for Pain and Headacheby Drs. Staudt, Harland, and Pilitsis; Sphenopalatine Ganglion Block Without Catheter by Dr. Maizels, and Occipital Neuralgia and Cervicogenic Headache by Dr. Young. Medication Overuse Headache, among the most common causes of chronic intractable headache, is effectively reviewed by Drs. Rosen and Duarte. As the use of medical marijuana expands in the United States, Drs. Sexton and Schuster’s review of Medical Cannabis for Migraine & Pain is especially timely.

As noted in the last issue, we have never had access to as many opportunities to provide meaningful care to our patients with headache disorders and chronic pain as now. The assessment and treatment of pain is one of the most common reasons people seek medical care, including from a neurology practice. For those of you who embrace the management of pain and headache in your practice, we hope that this special two-part series has added significantly to your ability to do so. For those of you who do not, we hope that this series has notably piqued your interest in general, as well as increased your recognition that effective care for such conditions is available and access to such should be facilitated to the fullest extent possible.

We have truly enjoyed developing and working on this series with all of our contributing authors and editor-in-chief, Anne M. Sydor, and are grateful for the opportunity to present these topics to you.