The panel met during the EAN Congress on June 25, 2017 from 10 am to 12 am with Fabio Antonaci and Stefan Evers as Co-Chairs and 14 other members.
1) Guidelines
The guideline on trigeminal neuralgia is in progress. The responsible author is Lars Bendtsen (Denmark). This guideline is written in cooperation with the Pain panel and should be added to the activity plan of the Headache Panel.
The revision of the guideline on cluster headache has been written by Arne May. However, the formal process of approving the guideline proposal has not been initiated, so this procedure will be started now. Rigmor Jensen will take care of this.
It was agreed that for the following guidelines proposals should be submitted to the EAN committee:
- Migraine (person in charge: Stefan Evers; interested to cooperate: Elena Lebedeva, Laszlo Vecsei, Aud Nome Dueland, Mark Braschinsky, Kristina Rylsikiene)
- Medication overuse headache (person in charge: Fabio Antonaci; interested to cooperate: Rigmor Jensen, Mark Braschinsky, Esper Saxhaug Kristofferson Kristina Ryliskiene)
In later times, also guidelines on posttraumatic headache and on the headaches in chapter 4 of the IHS classification will be considered. Beforehand, a position paper (e.g., on posttraumatic headache) could be published by the panel.
J Olesen proposed that EAN should employ a medical writer who could support all panels in writing a guideline.
2) Congress activities
The panel expressed its concerns and its disappointment that nearly all scientific proposals for the EAN congresses in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Lisbon have been rejected. This will be expressed in a letter to the Programme Committee and the EAN President. For the congress in Lisbon 2018, however, several educational activities have been accepted.
For the Oslo congress in 2019, proposals have to be submitted end of June 2018 latest. The following topics were proposed:
- New methods in headache research (genetics, stem cell research, animal models)
- Biomarkers in headache disorders
- Headache in neurovascular disorders
- Headache and disorders of CSF homoeostasis
- Burden of headache
Cooperation with other scientific panels should be made regarding congress symposia (e.g. the link between migraine and stroke).
3) Miscellaneous
The eBrain project, an internet based educational platform, is looking for experts to review or to write texts (e.g., case reports) on headache. The EAN is supporting this project. At present, Andy Dowson (UK) is coordinating the headache section. ES Kristofferson and R Jensen are willing to contribute to this project.
For the EAN website, all information and news about headache can be submitted. In particular, the paper of the month can be suggested. All members of the scientific panels can submit material to the EAN pages: https://www.eanpages.org/contact/
R Jensen presented the Headache Master School in Copenhagen and asked for endorsement from the panel and later from the Scientific Committee to continue the program. Applications for the new term of the Master School can be submitted now (http://mhd.ku.dk/).
F Antonaci presented an initiative of the Neuropathic Pain Panel to collect data on the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia by a survey. This will be internet-based via the EAN website.
The Headache Panel unanimously nominated Jes Olesen for one of the named EAN lectures. He will be proposed by the Panel chairs either for the 2018 or the 2019 meeting.
