Headache frustrations are set to ease, thanks to a new range of patient leaflets. Produced by Lifting The Burden, the World Health Organization's Global Campaign to Reduce the Burden of Headache Worldwide, they will help sufferers understand and manage their headache more effectively.

Almost all of us will have had a headache, but for many people it is more than just an irritant. For those with recurring headache, it can have a serious impact on their daily lives. A third (34.3%)(1) of migraine sufferers face difficulties or discrimination at work because of their condition.

To help all people with headache, including those with migraine, Lifting The Burden has produced five new leaflets:

- What is migraine?
- What is tension-type headache?
- What is cluster headache?
- What is chronic daily headache?
- Information on female hormones for women with headache.

The leaflets explain the symptoms, causes, triggers and treatment of the common headache disorders that, between them, affect the lives of 8.5 million people in the UK and an estimated, and staggering, 750 million across the globe.

These new leaflets are just one element of a worldwide programme undertaken by WHO and its partner charities to improve awareness of headache disorders as common and disabling and to implement practical solutions for better diagnosis and management.

Lifting The Burden chairman, Dr Timothy Steiner, said: "For many people, headache occurs repeatedly as a long-term, debilitating and extremely frustrating illness. Most headache disorders can be effectively treated, but the right diagnosis must be followed by the right management, in which the patient's own role is important. But, partly because there are several different headache disorders, many people do not clearly understand the type of headache that affects them, and what causes it - let alone what can be done to help.

"Now, with the help of these leaflets, sufferers will be able to gain this understanding and, as a result, a sense of control over their headache - simply by getting to grips with its nature and causes and the right way to use available treatments."

Lifting The Burden intends to launch further leaflets later in 2008, including "Doing the most to help yourself". All leaflets can be downloaded from l-t-b (select Resources Patient Information Leaflets from the home page).

- Lifting The Burden was launched in 2004. It is a formal collaboration between WHO, World Headache Alliance (WHA), International Headache Society (IHS) and European Headache Federation (EHF).

(1) The Migraine Trust, 2004

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