Introduction

Headache is one of the most common chief complaints in emergency medicine, accounting for nearly 2% of all emergency department visits. While most headaches are primary benign disorders, others may signal serious secondary causes such as hemorrhage, infection, or tumor. As medication experts, pharmacists play a pivotal role in optimizing care for headache patients. This requires a nuanced understanding of headache symptomatology, judicious selection of abortive therapies, and vigilance for dangerous secondary causes. In this subtopic, we will review key considerations for assessing and managing acute headache disorders in the emergency setting. Topics will include headache classification, red flag symptomatology, diagnostic recommendations from professional societies, pharmacological treatment options, and recent controversies regarding certain analgesic therapies. Mastery of these areas will empower pharmacists to significantly improve patient outcomes through expert consultation on headache management. With mounting pressures on emergency departments, the need for pharmacists well-versed in headache care has never been greater.