Post-traumatic headache

Post-traumatic headache (PTH) is a very controversial disorder, particularly when it comes to chronic PTH following mild closed head injury and headache attributed to whiplash injury. Nevertheless, mild traumatic brain injury is very common in Western societies, affecting approximately 1.8 million individuals in the USA. Between 30 and 90% of patients develop PTH. Generally, this headache resolves within the first 3 weeks after the accident without any specific therapy or long-term complications but in a minority of patients chronic PTH develops and can be associated with serious neurological and neuropsychological deficits. Sufficient psychological or neurobiological markers for PTH do not exist, thus treatment can be very challenging and should always be multidisciplinary, even in the early stages of disease, to make every reasonable effort in preventing the development of chronic pain.