Medication Overuse Headache Screening and Other Considerations

Pharmacotherapy

Injections, Procedures, and Invasive Interventions

Non-pharmacologic Therapy

Comparative Effectiveness and Combination Therapies

Document Overview

Design and created by Guideline Central in participation with the Veterans Health Administration / Department of Defense.

Management of Headache

Veterans Health Administration / Department of Defense

Publication Date: Oct 1, 2023

Page Last Updated: Mar 18, 2026

Strength of Recommendations in GRADE

Strength	Interpretation	Implications for clinicians	Implications for policymakers
Strong for	Almost all informed patients would choose to receive the intervention	Should be accepted by most patients to whom it is offered	Should be adopted as policy
Weak for	Most informed patients would choose the intervention, but a sizable minority would not	Large role for education and shared decision-making	Requires stakeholder engagement and discussion
Weak against	Most informed patients would not choose the intervention, but a small minority would	Large role for education and shared decision-making	Requires stakeholder engagement and discussion
Strong against	Most patients should not receive the intervention	Should not be offered to patients	Should be adopted as policy

Document Overview

Document Title: Management of Headache

Authoring Society: Veterans Health Administration / Department of Defense

Document Publication Date: Oct 1, 2023

Page Last Reviewed/Updated: Mar 18, 2026

Document Type: Guideline

Country of Publication: United States

Full Text Freely Available: Yes

Full Text Guideline: www.healthquality.va.gov/guidelines/pain/headache/VA-DoD-CPG-Headache-Full-CPG.pdf

Supplemental Implementation Resources

Document Scope, Criteria, and Use Cases

Scope: Management

Diseases/Conditions (MeSH)

D006261 - Headache

D020773 - Headache Disorders

D014493 - United States Department of Veterans Affairs

D058014 - Veterans Health

D000081324 - Veterans Health Services

Keywords: headache, veteran

Inclusion Criteria: Male, Female, Adult, Older Adult

Health Care Settings: Ambulatory

Intended Users: Nurse, Nurse Practitioner, Physician, Physician Assistant

Recommendation Development Processes & Methodology

Supplemental Methodology Resource: Data Supplement

Number of Source Documents: 388

Literature Search Start Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Literature Search End Date: Monday, August 15, 2022

Includes peer/external review process?: Yes

Includes public comment process?: No

Methodologist involvement?: Yes

Patient involvement?: No

Includes multi-disciplinary group?: Yes

Includes systematic review?: Yes

Grades quality of strength of evidence?: Yes

Grades quality of strength of recommendation?: Yes

Discloses funding source?: Yes

Discloses conflicts of interest?: Yes

Includes benefits/harms analysis with recommendations?: No

Management of Headache

Medication Overuse Headache Screening and Other Considerations

Pharmacotherapy

Headache - Preventive

Migraine - Preventive

Migraine - Abortive

Tension-Type Headache - Preventive

Tension-Type Headache - Abortive

Cluster Headache - Preventive

Cluster Headache - Abortive

Medication Overuse Headache

Injections, Procedures, and Invasive Interventions

Non-pharmacologic Therapy

Comparative Effectiveness and Combination Therapies

Strength of Recommendations in GRADE

Document Overview

Supplemental Implementation Resources

Document Scope, Criteria, and Use Cases

Recommendation Development Processes & Methodology