Headache ED presentations by seniors ‘often serious’
Nearly one in five visits by over-75s for non-traumatic headache turn out to be linked to an underlying condition, researchers say
Older people presenting to the ED with a non-traumatic headache are three times more likely than younger patients to be harbouring an underlying serious condition, a study shows.
The finding shows the importance of carrying out further investigation in older patients, even though they may not report as much pain as younger ones, the researchers say.
The results are from a planned sub-analysis of the international HEAD (Headache in Emergency Departments) study carried out in 67 hospitals, 34 of which were in Australia.
In HEAD, data were collected for more than 4500 adults who presented to the ED because of a non-traumatic headache during the month of March 2019.
