SUMMARY
Headache is the most common central nervous systemdisorders & one of commonest health problem (1).It has psychological, social & economic effect on the patients &their surrounding populations. Although many epidemiologicalstudies about headache disorders are performed yearly; they areonly partially documented. Those studies are performed mainlyin the developed countries & only few numbers of studies wasperformed in the developing countries because of the limitedresources & funding and the present of difficult to be reachedcites or villages.ObjectivesThe aim of our study is to define the problem of headacheworldwide & to compare the world wide studies & experienceswith studies published in Arabian Gulf countries & Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia (KSA); to gain better understanding of the burdenof headache & situation of headache care in our country; if it issatisfying the patient and if the health resources are well utilizedto decrease their suffering. Worldwide experience should be usedto put helpful solutions & to make the management of headachedisorders in our country more effective & efficient.MethodsReview of most relevant worldwide studies related tointernational headache epidemiology including Arabian Gulfcountries & burden of headache worldwide. We searched studiespublished on PubMed & Google scholar for the most relevant &updated studies.An electronic survey that was performed will be discussed to,those surveys were spread through social websites to get someideas about general populations & physicians opinions on recentstatus of headache care provided to headache patients & the ideaof initiating a specialized headache clinic in Kingdom of SaudiArabia.ResultsIn KSA; prevalence of headache was measured throughsmall number of studies; 1-year prevalence of all headache was63% & it is accounted for 13% of all neurological outpatients.More than one-third of school students were absent from schooldue to headache. Mean headache-attributed lost work-days perperson/year was 24.0 days for migraine, 6.6 days for Tension typeheadache (TTH ) & 53.4 days for medication overuse headache .The results of our 3 questionnaires show that; almost half ofour samples have monthly attacks of headache & around 10-15%have daily headache attacks. More than one third of theresponders mentioned that headache prevent them fromperforming their daily activity , it causes social isolation in morethan 20 % of them , in almost equal percentage it is affect theirrelations & it is affect the school or work attendance in 8.33-9.3% of them.Almost all of our responders agree that there is a need formore organization in management of headache cases & moreeducation for headache patients in KSA.ConclusionEpidemiological studies worldwide show that headache has ahigh prevalence & burden; most of the developed country initiateheadache organizations, programs that is aiming for physicianeducations & specialized headache clinic. Studies in KSA showthat headache is affecting people life & most of the patients donot know where to go to manage their headaches. Moreorganized headache care is needed & a Saudi headache societyshould be built to perform more studies & provide optimal carefor headache patients.