Conclusion

If you suffer from headaches and none of the standard treatments help, do not despair. Some people find that their headaches disappear once they deal with a troubled marriage, pass their law board exams, or resolve some other stressful problem. Others find that if they control their psychological reaction to stress, the headaches disappear.

"I had migraines for several years," says one woman, "and then they went away. I think it was because I lowered my personal goals in life. Today, even though I have 100 things to do at night, I don't worry about it. I learned to say no."

For those who cannot say no, or who get headaches anyway, today's headache research offers hope. The work of NINDS-supported scientists around the world promises to improve our understanding of this complex disorder and provide better tools to treat it.

This pamphlet was written and published by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the United States' leading supporter of research on disorders of the brain and nerves, including headache. NINDS, one of the U.S. Government's 17 National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is part of the Public Health Service within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.