The Clinical Trials Guidelines Committee has been working on updating the 'Guidelines for Controlled Trials of Preventive Treatment of Migraine Attacks in Episodic Migraine in Adults'.

The document is now available for member review and members should have received a mailshot with the document. If you have not received this and wish to access the document please contact IHS.

Deadline for comments: 1 April 2020

IHS is running a global campaign for the awareness of Cluster Headache and we will focus on the diagnosis, treatments and cause of this debilitating condition.

Click to read in Spanish -- Portuguese -- Mandarin

We hope this advocacy campaign brings together the global community to disseminate cluster headache diagnosis and prevention strategies to clinicians, researchers and patients in the hope of achieving better patient outcomes and contributing to the IHS mission statement of working toward headache relief worldwide.

We invite you to participate in this campaign and share the facts about Cluster Headache through our social media accounts. To join the conversation, use #ClusterHeadacheDay2020 and #ClusterDay20 on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Use our Media Kit including logos, to elevate the conversation of Cluster Headache awareness and help spread the word about this important advocacy campaign.

As headache professionals, it is our duty to communicate diagnostic and preventive methods to our colleagues, patients and the general public in order to ensure proper care at the proper time and hopefully avoid or, at the very least, lessen the impact it has on daily functioning and quality of life.

Throughout this year, IHS will be offering a variety of materials dedicated to communicating diagnostic and treatment methods geared toward clinicians, researchers and those living with Cluster Headache. We plan an exciting lineup of fact sheets, webinars and other communications to share with you, and we encourage you to share the information widely.

Together, we can provide the latest research, clinical practices, treatments and self-management techniques to work toward a world with better understanding of Cluster Headache.

The IHS fellowship award aims to support innovative and impactful research from young investigators, promote the career of young investigators in the field of headache, and increase the knowledge base of headache disorders. Applications for basic or clinical science headache research, or a combination of basic and clinical research, will be considered.

Eligibility: Within 6 years from completing training (MD, PhD, specialty training, whatever was last) not including non-professional periods

Award value: £ 50,000

Please see below for more information and an application form.

Deadline for applications: 1 July 2020

Application is now open for the 3rd Master in Headache Disorders (MHD) at the University of Copenhagen. This is a 2-year part time program on all headache disorders following which you will receive an Academic Master Degree.

In MHD1 from 2016-2018 17 Masters graduated with excellence and at present 23 MHD2 students will graduate in June 2020. They come from 17 different countries from The Philippines, Pakistan, Iran, Europe and USA. The students background qualifications in MHD2 are a great interest and experience in clinical management of pain and headache. The group consists of 16 neurologists, 1 GP, 4 nurses, 1 physiotherapist and 1 osteopath.

In a world with limited resources education is the key, especially within the headache field, where there is a significant unmet need for academic education.

For more information please click HERE

For the first time in 2019 the IHS Board opened applications for research grants for scientific projects. Two projects were selected from over 30 applications received, each receiving € 75,000:

The successful applications were:

Menstrual migraine: estrogen influences migraine susceptibility by affecting the balance of oxytocin and CGRP signaling. Principle investigator: Kristian A Haanes. Co-investigators: Lars Edvinsson (Lund, Sweden), Diana Krause (Irvine, USA). Research location: Glostrup Research Park, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

BIOMIGRAINE: A multidisciplinary approach to the identification of BIOmarkers of MIGRAINE: a proof of concept study based on the stratification of responders to CGRP monoclonal antibodies. Principle investigator: Patricia Pozo Rosich. Co-investigators: Marta Torres-Ferrus (Barcelona, Spain), Cristina Tassorelli and Roberto de Icco (Pavia, Italy), Arne May and Christian Ziegeler (Hamburg, Germany). Research location: Headache Clinical Unit & Research Group, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research, Barcelona, Spain

A short overview of both these projects can be found below.

Congratulations to the winning applicants!

The first edition of the International Classification of Orofacial Pain (ICOP) is published in Cephalalgia.

This publication was written by a collaborative group consisting of members of the Orofacial and Head Pain Special Interest Group (OFHP SIG) of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), the International Network for Orofacial Pain and Related Disorders Methodology (INfORM), and the American Academy of Orofacial Pain (AAOP).

Continuing its education outreach, IHS funded Visiting Professors to present at meetings in Kyrgyzstan and Iran in autumn 2019.

Visiting Professors is an IHS education initiative which has been running since 2012 with the aim to send headache specialists as representatives of IHS to attend regional meetings, or teach at a headache centre, in countries that might need or want increased headache education and motivation and where, without financial support, attendance of an international specialist would not be possible.

The local organisers of the meetings report.

The IHS 2019 Headache Trainee was Khatia Gvantseladze from Tbilisi, Georgia, who spent almost 3 months with Messoud Ashina and the team at the Danish Headache Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark. During her stay she also attended the IHC in Dublin, Ireland, in September.

Khatia's report is attached

The Headache Trainee programme encourage physicians from countries listed as World Bank Low-, Lower-Middle- and Upper-Middle-Income countries to visit a specialised headache institution abroad and actively increase knowledge on headache disorders and specialised headache management. It is also intended to spread this knowledge to their home countries without headache infrastructure or expertise. After a clinical training period of up to 12 weeks at a headache centre abroad the award holder is encouraged to return to his/her country of origin in order to apply the acquired knowledge, thus contributing to the advance of patient management locally. Within a supporting phase of 12 weeks the fellow is afterwards asked to present or discuss cases from their home c

Following many months of planning, the Latin America Master School Class took place in October 2019 in Bogota, Colombia. There were over 100 young participants. Four international faculty members joined 9 Latin American headache experts to teach over 3 days.

Course organiser Dr Michel Volcy reports on the event

Short-stay scholarships, Headache Trainee programme, and Visiting Professor grants now available for 2020.

Importantly, for the Short-stay Scholarships and Trainee programme we have extended the eligibile countries and now base this on the World Bank listing of Lower, Lower-middle and Upper-middle countries.

For more information see the Awards section of the website.

A selection of posters presented during IHC in September are now uploaded in the IHS Poster Library.

If you would like your poster to be included please email to Carol Taylor

Three young clinicians and researchers, two from India one from Serbia, attended iHEAD, IHC and then spent up to 6 weeks in headache centres in Dublin. Read about their experiences below.

If you are a young doctor from a developing country, and would like to apply for the 2020 Short-stay scholar programme, please visit the IHS website later in the year when the application process will open. Or join IHS today as an Associate Member to make sure you receive notification!