CKS is no longer commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE remains committed to providing a replacement service for CKS and is currently reviewing its options. In the meantime, although CKS content is now not being maintained, it still remains relevant and will continue to be made available. CKS content was generated under a programme of topic creation and update. To check if the topic you are viewing is current or out of date, please refer to the topic publication details by clicking on the 'How up-to-date is this topic?' link in the left hand menu on individual topic pages.
Headache - assessment
In the right clinical topic?
Age from 6 years onwards
This CKS topic covers the assessment and management of adults and children presenting with undiagnosed headache. It provides diagnostic criteria for the common headache disorders and for some of the less common headache disorders.
This CKS topic does not cover the management of specific headache disorders (such as tension-type headache, migraine, and medication-overuse headache).
There are separate CKS topics on Giant cell arteritis, Headache - cluster, Headache - medication overuse, Headache - tension-type, Migraine, Neck pain - acute torticollis, Neck pain - cervical radiculopathy, Neck pain - non-specific, Neck pain - whiplash injury, Otitis media - acute, Otitis media with effusion, Post-herpetic neuralgia, Shingles, Sinusitis, and Trigeminal neuralgia; there is also a referral guideline, published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, for Brain tumour - suspected.
The target audience for this CKS topic is healthcare professionals working within the NHS in England, and providing first contact or primary health care.
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