Important information regarding the current ICHD-3 beta version
Please use from now on the current ICHD-3 beta version for clinical and scientific purposes:
Go to ICHD-3 Website
Preface to IHS-ICHD-2 website
Two years after the publication of the 2nd Edition of The International Headache Classification (ICHD-2), we are now ready to launch a web based edition.
This is a major achievement and my sincere thanks go to the Chairman of the committee that has developed this, Prof. Hartmut Göbel of The Kiel Headache Centre and to the members of his committee.
This web based version has many facilities that are not present in the printed version or a simple electronic file.
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This classification is hierarchical and you must decide how detailed you want to make your diagnosis. This can range from the first-digit level to the fourth. First one gets a rough idea about which group the patient belongs to. Is it for example 1. Migraine or 2. Tension-type headache or 3. Cluster headache and other trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias? Then one obtains information allowing a more detailed diagnosis. The desired detail depends on the purpose. In general practice only the first- or second-digit diagnoses are usually applied whilst in specialist practice and headache centres a diagnosis at the third- or fourth-digit levels is appropriate.
How to Use This Classification
This extensive document is not intended to be learned by heart. Even members of the Headache Classification Subcommittee are unable to remember all of it. It is a document that should be consulted time and time again. In this way you will soon get to know the diagnostic criteria for 1.1 Migraine without aura, 1.2 Migraine with aura, the major subtypes of 2. Tension-type headache, 3.1 Cluster headache and a few others. The rest will remain something to look up....
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