Headaches, migraine, and herbal medicine

Headache is among the most common medical complaints. Patients with nontraumatic headache constitute approximately 2%–4% of emergency department visits. Beside a small number of patients with life-threatening headaches, the rest of the population is the overwhelming majority with benign primary headaches (i.e., migraine, tension headache, or cluster headache). Although benign primary headaches are not life-threatening, they can be recurrent and can develop to chronic headaches that cause disability. This chapter focuses on herbs useful for treating benign and nonemergent headaches. Types of benign headaches and their related clinical presentation are described in the following paragraphs. The mechanism of the therapeutic effects associated with these herbal medicines is also discussed in this chapter.