Does NDPH exist? Some clinical considerations

Patients with sudden onset headache not meeting the criteria of the International Headache Society for new daily persistent headache. How to classify them?

We conducted a retrospective analysis of the records of 1348 patients regularly treated at the headache clinic of Department of Neurology of Santa Casa de São Paulo, Brazil. Sixty-two patients reported history of daily and persistent headache. From the 62 patients selected, only 21 (group 1) could be diagnosed with new daily-persistent headache (NDPH) according to the International Headache Society (HIS) 2004 criteria. The 41 remaining patients (group 2) could not be diagnosed with NDPH according to IHS-2004 once they presented two or more migraine attack-related symptoms, such as: nausea, photophobia, phonophobia and vomiting, in different combinations. It was not possible to classify them in groups 1 to 4 of primary headaches either. How to classify them? We suggest that the criteria are revised. And one way we can classify them, would be the subdivision: NDPH with migraine features and without migraine features that would allow the inclusion of all individuals present who has a daily and persistent headache from the beginning