News Archive

• Headache in India 28/02/2019

  Headache Update 2018 was held in Mumbai in December 2018 with the aim to update Indian headache specialists and neurologists on the recent advances in headache medicine. Faculty included key international headache specialists and IHS leaders. Dr K.Ravishankar was the Course Director and reports on the meeting.

  
• 4th Annual International Headache Symposium in Israel 31/12/2018

  The 4th Annual International Headache Symposium in Israel will take place in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 9 January 2019

  The symposium will run under the auspices of IHS - for more information see the IHSI website
• IHS-GPAC thought-leaders meet in New York 08/10/2018

  This weekend in New York members of the IHS-GPAC Steering and Core Committees held a strategy workshop to prepare for the global launch of the IHS Global Patient Advocacy Coalition (IHS-GPAC) to work on patient advocacy efforts for people with migraine and other headache disorders. This inspirational group representing 12 worldwide countries brainstormed over 2 days to initiate a pioneering mission. One member of the group said 'It is a great and huge honour to participate in this adventure which I am sure will end in amazing tools for patients and physicians, and the public to equalise all needs in headaches around the world'. To use an old adage: If not us, who; if not now, when?

  Photos of the workshop can be viewed below.

  
• Congratulations to IHC prize winners 31/10/2017

  IHS congratulates IHC 2017 Trainees Excellence Tournament and poster prize winners

   

  Trainees Excellence Tournament

  Clinical Presentation

  Julia Hebestreit - Topiramate inhibits thalamic activity during trigeminal pain in humans

  Scientific Presentation

  Inge Loonen - Functional characteristics of non-invasively optogenetically induced CSD in FHM1 mutant mice

   

  Poster prizes

  T&R SIG choice

  Altered brainstem anatomy in migraine
  Noemi Meylakh, Flavia Di Pietro, Kasia Marciszewski, Vaughan Macefield, Luke Henderson, Paul Macey

  People's choice

  Infusion of calcitonin gene-related peptide provokes cluster headache attacks
  Anne Luise Vollesen, Agneta Snoer, Rasmus Paulin Beske, Song Guo, Rigmor Højland Jensen, Messoud Ashina, Jan Hoffmann

   
• Jes Olesen recognition for ICHD leadership 19/09/2017

  IHS recognises the enormous contribution of Professor Jes Olesen in leading the development of ICHD. ICHD has provided the basis for advances in the clinical and biological understanding of headache disorders and continues to facilitate the progress in treatment.

  
• Chris Diener receives IHS Special Recognition Award 18/09/2017

  Professor Hans-Christoph Diener is seen receiving his award from IHS President, Professor David Dodick during the IHC 2017 Opening Ceremony on 7 September 2017

  

  Photo: JON BENJAMIN PHOTOGRAPHY
• IHC 2017 Presidential Symposium 15/09/2017

  VANCOUVER, B.C., SEPTEMBER 7-10, 2017 — The theme of the 2017 Congress of the International Headache Society, “New Horizons in Headache,” nods to both the location of the conference in Vancouver, B.C., and to the event’s focus on the new frontier of headache medicine.

  “This unprecedented event in headache medicine marks the turning point for a group of diseases that have endured a severe lack of understanding, damaging stigma, historic underfunding for research, and a painfully slow pace of treatment advances,” said Dr. David Dodick, President of the International Headache Society and Co-Chair of the Congress, in his welcoming remarks Sept. 7.

  The Presidential Symposium, kickstarting the 2017 Congress of the International Headache Society, follows the first-ever Global Patient Advocacy Symposium, a one-day intensive connecting leaders in headache medicine with public health organizations, patient advocacy groups and other interdisciplinary allies to establish mutual international patient support goals.

  Awards and Recognitions

  The ceremony opened by honoring the accomplished life of Ninan Mathew (1937-2015), founder of the Houston Headache Clinic and former president of the International Headache Society. Prof. Jes Olesen was the recipient of the IHS Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding accomplishments with the Danish Headache Center, which are exemplary in the field. In addition, Dr. Hans-Christoph Diener received the IHS Special Recognition Award for his integrity, ethics, and professionalism, all of which have earned him remarkable respect amongst colleagues around the world.

  Accomplishments

  Since the last Congress in 2015, the organization has made several key developments, reaching critical goals that include to sustain and grow global education, build a global network of researchers, and to mentor and develop future leaders, including the development of a women’s leadership program. In addition, the IHS just surpassed the largest membership base in the history of the organization. At the Symposium, Dodick announced that IHS has developed and launched a full, open access companion journal to Cephalalgia, called Cephalalgia Reports. The new journal will include original research papers, review articles, clinical perspectives, case reports, CME articles, technical reports and more.

  New Horizons

  Called the most exciting field in neurology, and the most groundbreaking moment in headache medicine, new advancements are indeed on the horizon. Highlighting four key breakthrough areas in the field, International Headache Congress began with a Presidential Symposium including presentations to address the new horizons in headache imaging, translational research, genetics and novel treatment targets, presented by Drs. Todd Schwedt, Frank Porecca, Michel Ferrari and Peter Goadsby, respectively.

  Global Patient Advocacy Call to Action

  In an effort to build an emphasis on patient-centric care, the 2017 Congress was preceded by the first ever Global Patient Advocacy Summit. To continue the momentum, a motion to globalize migraine patient advocacy has been made through the forming of the Global Patient Advocacy Coalition (GPAC). Objectives of the GPAC include country-specific research surrounding the formation of a global migraine approach to advocacy, resources to develop local outreach, evaluation of local initiatives, refinement of tactics and needs assessment.

  The Congress brings together hundreds of leaders from the International Headache Society’s membership for four days of lectures, networking, peer education and expert panels focused on the world of headache science, education and management at the unique Vancouver Convention Centre. IHC2017 will include plenary sessions, an extensive poster display and in-depth scientific presentations showcasing basic and clinical research that that promises an exciting future for headache medicine.

  “We have the collective brain trust, commitment, and influence in this room today to change all of that for the hundreds of millions who suffer with disabling headache around the globe by building awareness, raising support, delivering education, and improving access to care,” says Dr. Dodick.  
• IHS awards Special Recognition and Life Membership 09/09/2017

  Congratulations to Dr Hans-Christoph Diener, past IHS President, on receiving the IHS Special Recognition Award in 2017.

  Congratuations also to Dr Alan Rapoport for receiving his Life Membership certificate as he transitions off the Board having served his term as Immediate Past-President.
• Cephalalgia Award Lecture presented at IHC 09/09/2017

  Congratuations to Thomas Linman and colleagues who have received the Cephalalgia Award Lecture for their article 'Circulating endothelial microparticles in female migraineurs with aura'. Cephalalgia 2015;35:88-94

  His presentation will take place at the IHC 2017 this evening.
• Welcome to the new IHS Trustees 08/09/2017

  Following the IHS Annual General Meeting Dr Lars Edvinsson steps into the role of President.

  We welcome Dr Messoud Ashina as IHS President-elect and Dr Mario Peres, Dr Patricia Pozo-Rosich and Dr Todd Schwedt as elected Trustees.

  Many thanks to the Trustees who are leaving the Board for their tireless efforts on behalf of the society:

  Alan Rapoport - Past-President
  Rami Burstein
  Fayyaz Ahmed
  Werner Becker
  Mamoru Shibata
  Alessandro Zagami
• First-Ever Global Patient Advocacy Summit 06/09/2017

  

  SEPTEMBER 6, 2017, 8:00 AM PDT: VANCOUVER, B.C. — For the first time in the history of headache medicine, the top representatives from 49 International Headache Society member groups will gather for a one-day summit to identify the most essential global goals for the field with an emphasis on patient support. The Global Patient Advocacy Summit (GPAS), held on Sept. 6, 2017, kicks off the four-day, 18th Congress of the International Headache Society, and represents a groundbreaking interdisciplinary effort between doctors, researchers, government agencies and patient advocates to design a blueprint to close gaps in headache diagnosis, research and treatment.

  “Individuals living with migraine bear multiple burdens. Not only is their disease potentially debilitating, it’s also invisible, misunderstood and deprived of the necessary investment in research that’s proportional to its devastating scope,” said Dr. David Dodick, President of the International Headache Society and Co-Chair of the Congress. “Migraine is identified by the World Health Organization as the third most disabling medical illness on the planet. The Global Patient Advocacy Summit represents a focused, organic partnership between doctors, patients and public health organizations to rectify that inequity, and make progress in the field of headache medicine."

  Through a series of panels and interorganizational sessions, the goal of the one-day summit is to identify opportunities for patient advocacy around the globe, and the avenues by which leading professional medical societies, patient advocacy groups, and industry leaders can help facilitate and support these efforts.

  “There is a staggering 37 million people living with migraine in the United States alone. Many of those people have never had their symptoms taken seriously or even addressed by a headache specialist,” said Meghan Buzby, Executive Director of the American Migraine Foundation, a partner organization presenting at the summit. “The more resources we can dedicate to education and driving public awareness, the more effective we will be at giving millions of people the tools they desperately need to advocate for their health and overall well-being.”

  In addition to patient advocacy, one of the key meeting initiatives is to identify mechanisms to expand and improve patient access to healthcare services and treatment. New research has led to the development of groundbreaking therapies that could change the lives of millions of migraine patients around the world. Still, even in developed countries, migraine and headache research lacks access to publicly available research dollars. The massive and disproportionate lack of funding, relative to the disease's prevalence and its overall economic burden, has resulted in a glacial pace of treatment advances—a problem the summit attendees pledge to overcome in time.

  The Global Patient Advocacy Summit represents a robust commitment to headache medicine and a uniform approach to a patient-centric offensive against the disabling disease. Elevating the profile of migraine, educating patients on advocacy opportunities, strategizing solutions to overcome barriers to treatment  and organizing awareness campaigns for employers, governments and the general public are key agenda items the summit will address.

  At the conclusion of the one-day event, participants will collaboratively generate a white paper and a strategic blueprint for migraine patient advocacy that will be published in Cephalalgia, the International Headache Society’s medical journal.

  Participating organizations include the World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, various nonprofit organizations such as the American Migraine Foundation, American Academy of Neurology and other leading patient advocacy groups and national medical agencies from around the globe.

  About the International Headache Society:

  The International Headache Society is the world’s leading membership organization for all whose professional commitment, whatever their discipline, is to helping people whose lives are affected by headache. As a charity, the purpose of IHS is to advance headache science, education, and management, and promote headache awareness worldwide. Activities include publication of Cephalalgia, the biennial International Headache Congress, developing guidelines, the international headache classification, educating the next generation of headache specialists worldwide, online education materials and offering grants and fellowships to young physicians worldwide. For more information about the IHS, visit their website: http://www.ihs-headache.org

  About Migraine/Headache:

  Migraine is the third most prevalent and sixth most disabling medical illness in the world. Despite the more than 1 billion people affected by migraine around the globe, it is vastly underrecognized and undertreated, and there remains tremendous disparity in patient access to education, healthcare services, and drug, device, and non-pharmacological treatments.  Individuals who experience migraine have symptoms that include nausea, sensitivity to light and/or odors, skin sensitivity, fatigue, mood change, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, neck pain and changes in vision, including seeing spots, stars, lines, flashing lights and zigzag lines. The risk of other serious diseases is significantly higher in those with migraine, including stroke, epilepsy, depression, anxiety and chronic pain. Despite this, only one of every three people talk with a doctor about their migraine attacks and of those, only half get the right diagnosis. There is also a massive shortage of specialists focusing on migraine, with one specialist for every 65,000 individuals living with migraine, which worsens the problem.

  Media Inquiries:

  Lizzie Tufano
  (708) 705-0822
  lizzie@yakketyyak.com
  318 W. Adams Ste 1607, Chicago, IL 60606

   
• MRF announces 2015 award recipients 18/12/2015

  The Migraine Research Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of the research grants awarded for 2015. The grants will help research into new migraine biomarkers, identifying new treatments from traditional Chinese medicine, studying New Daily Persistent Headache, and more. For information on the awardees see HERE.
• New Editor-in-Chief for Cephalalgia 18/09/2015

  IHS is very pleased to announce that Arne May will succeed David Dodick as Editor-in-Chief of Cephalalgia from January 2016.

  Arne has served on the IHS Board of Trustees since June 2013, and as an Associate Editor of Cephalalgia since March 2009. He is currently head of one of the largest headache outpatient clinics in Germany, based at the University Clinic in Hamburg (UKE). His scientific interest in headache is long-standing, and he has published papers and book chapters on genetics, epidemiology, physiology and pathophysiology of the trigeminovascular system, headache classification and phenotype, as well as functional imaging.

  Arne said "This is a huge opportunity and I am very honoured to be appointed. All my vigour will be to keep Cephalalgia where it has so successfully been led by David Dodick and former Editors: the best journal to publish the best headache science available".
• IHS Visiting Professors in Bulgaria and Estonia 12/08/2015

  Alan Rapoport and Nina Latysheva attended the 14th Bulgarian National Congress in Varna, Bulgaria, in May as IHS Visiting Professors. Read the meeting report here.

  Messoud Ashina and Alan Rapoport presented at the 2015 Estonian Headache Society annual meeting - Mark Braschinsky reports.

  Slide presentations from the Estonian meeting, and also the Moroccan and Azerbaijan Visiting Professor meetings, are available in the Learning Centre/Visiting Professors.

  
• Visiting Professor Reports - Azerbaijan, Morocco 28/07/2015

  The IHS Visiting Professor initiative sends 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 but where without financial support attendance of an international specialist would not be possible.

  We report on two recent Visiting Professor projects in Azerbaijan and Morocco.

  
• Report on 1st Pan-African meeting 28/07/2015

  The first Turkish Pan-African meeting on 'Headache and pain management' took place in May 2015 in Istanbul and attracted 80 senior and junior neurologists from 10 different African countries.

  The meeting was organised by Professor Hayrunnisa Bolay from Ankara, and run under the auspices of IHS.

  
• 5th ARCH meeting report 28/07/2015

  The 5th Asian Regional Conference on Headache meeting, 'Challenges in headache disorders'  was held in Thailand in January. Congress organisers Siwaporn Changkrachang and Surat Tanprawate report.

  
• ICHD-3-beta Portuguese translation 28/07/2014

  A Portuguese translation of the ICHD-3-beta is now available.

  This work has been completed by a team of Portuguese headache specialists, including José Pereira Monteiro (Coordinator), José Rocha Barros, Paula Esperança, Gabriela Fernandes, Helena Gens, Raquel Gil Gouveia, Isabel Luzeiro, Jorge Machado, Isabel Pavão Martins, Fernando Matias, Maria Manuela Palmeira, Elsa Parreira, Carlos Fontes Ribeiro, Alfredo Sá and Lívia Sousa.

  The translation will be published in the official Journal of the Portuguese Neurological Society (Sinapse) to enable dissemination of this highly relevant information for daily clinical practice among our Portuguese-speaking colleagues, over the world.

  The translation was sponsored by the Portuguese Headache Society and the Portuguese Neurological Society.

  
• 'Headache and Pain' - book published 10/03/2014

  Headache and other types of pain have some common characteristics concerning pain generation and chronicity. But some distinct pathophysiological processes are unique to the headache. This book explores pain mechanisms, diagnosis, and management of headache and other chronic pain through sessions of a joint symposium of IASP and the International Headache Society. This book, edited by Ralf Baron (IASP) and Arne May (IHS), represents the current state of scientific discussions of the respective fields in both pain areas.

  See the IASP website for more information

  

   
• ICHD-3-beta slide kit now available 17/02/2014
• ICHD-3-beta Spanish translation 17/02/2014
  
• Additional ICHD-3-beta slides now available 09/09/2013
  
• ICHD-3-beta slides now available 06/09/2013
• Cephalalgia App released 20/06/2013

   

  The Cephalalgia App is now available for download through the iTunes store.

   

   

   

  Simply click here to see the Cephalalgia app in iTunes.

   

   

   

  The App will be freely available until the end of August, when it will become an IHS membership benefit.
   

  

   

   
• ICHD-3 beta now published 17/06/2013

  The ICHD-3 beta version is now published in the July issue of Cephalalgia and is freely available for download. Please see the attached Editorial, and start to use this version.

  
• Dr Marcia Wilkinson, one of the first Editors of Cephalalgia, has died aged 93 05/02/2013

  Marcia was a Life Member of IHS, and in 2011 wrote an Editorial to recognise the 30th anniversary of the Society and Cephalalgia. IHS offer condolences to her family.