The University of Calgary Clinical Neurosciences Podcasts

The University of Calgary's department of clinical neurosciences podcasts are designed to bring topics in neurology, neurosurgery, and rehabilitation medicine to primary care physicians and trainees. Note that the opinions expressed in these podcasts do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Calgary or the department of clinical neurosciences. The University of Calgary is not responsible for the accuracy of the information contained within these podcasts.

In the last podcast we discussed the general principles of the management of acute migraine headache. In this podcast, we discuss the principles of migraine prophylaxis, including indications for prophylaxis and specific prophylactic therapies.
Dr. Werner Becker, Professor of Neurology at the University of Calgary has kindly agreed to once again be the guest expert for this podcast. Dr. Becker is also the senior author of the Canadian Headache Society guidelines for acute migraine treatment and for prophylactic migraine treatment, which is the main source of content for this podcast. Dr. Becker has no disclosures.

In the last podcast we discussed migraine prophylaxis. In this podcast we focus on chronic migraine, a disabling neurologic condition that affects 2% of the population. Back with us is Dr. Werner Becker, Professor of Neurology at the University of Calgary and a fellow of the American Headache Society. Dr. Becker is also the senior author of the Canadian Headache Society guidelines for acute migraine treatment and for prophylactic migraine treatment. Dr. Becker has no disclosures. 
In addition to the above guidelines, the content for this podcast was also based on a recent review article in the BMJ entitled "Chronic migraine" by Todd J Schwedt (BMJ 2014;348:g1416).

In the last podcast we discussed chronic migraine. In this podcast we discuss tension-type headache, which is the most common primary or secondary headache with a lifetime prevalence in adults of 46%. Because of its higher population prevalence, TTH actually has a greater societal impact than migraine even though it is less disabling. The learning objectives for this podcast include diagnosis, the general approach to the patient presenting with tension type headache, and specific pharmacological treatment.
The guest expert for this podcast is once again Dr. Werner Becker, Professor of Neurology at the University of Calgary and a fellow of the American Headache Society. Dr. Becker has no disclosures. The main resource for the content of this podcast was the Towards Optimized Practice Primary Care Management of Headache in Adults guideline.

In the last podcast we discussed tension-type headache. In the current podcast, we discuss cluster headache, which is a rare variety of primary headache, having a population frequency of about 0.1%. Because the pain of cluster headache is one of the most severe that humans experience, the treatment of cluster headache often becomes almost an emergency as patients seek relief. 
To discuss cluster headache diagnosis and treatment, we have Dr. Werner Becker back with us once more. Dr. Becker is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Calgary and a fellow of the American Headache Society. He has also recently written a clinical review entitled “Cluster Headache: Conventional Pharmacological Management” in the journal Headache (2013; 53(7); 1191-1196). The content of the current podcast is largely based on this article.