[Differential diagnosis and therapy of headache in general practice. Anamnesis is the alpha and omega]

Headache is one of the most common reasons for a patient to consult the doctor. Of prime importance are the correct differential diagnosis and effective treatment. A differentiation is made between primary and secondary headache. In the international classification, the primary headache syndromes include migraine with and without an aura, tension type headache, headache associated with misuse of analgesics, cluster headache, and a number of rare forms of headache with no structural lesion. The secondary headache syndromes occur symptomatically as sequelae of underlying disease, the spectrum of causes covering more than 300 different disorders. In patients with headache of unclear genesis, careful history-taking and thorough physical examination should be followed by a further diagnostic work-up.