UC Riverside

The social perception of headache, everywhere at low levels in industrialised countries, becomes totally absent in developing ones. Headache disorders came into the World Health Organization's strategic priorities after publication of the 2001 World Health Report. Among the leading causes of disability, migraine was ranked 19th for adults of both sexes together and 12th for females. The Global Campaign (GC) to Reduce the Burden of Headache Worldwide was planned by the major international headache organizations together with WHO in order to identify and remove those cultural, social and educational barriers recognised as responsible factors for the inadequate treatment of headache disorders worldwide. Within the GC activities, the education of the medical body will represents a central pillar. An International Team for Specialist Education (ITSE) has been created to train physicians from all over the world through the acquisition of a university level Master Degree in Headache Medicine. Once trained as headache specialists, physicians will become trainers, offering education in this field to other health care providers in their own countries. In this way they will give life to a cultural chain raising awareness locally of headache, its burden and its medical control.