CLASSIFICATION OF HEADACHE IN CHILDREN AN D ADOLESCENTS

A generally accepted internationally uniform classification of headach e, rind cephalic and trigeminal neuralgia is an indispensible conditio n for any effective basic research and communication in clinical work. Since the etiopathogenesis especially for the so-called primary heada che is unknown the classification has to be based on clinical-phenomen ological aspects. Internationally the classification of the Ad Hoc Com mittee on Classification of Headache published in 1962 has been used u ntil recently. German speaking countries mostly followed the classific ations according to Heyck (1982) which are based on the classification s of the Ad Hoc Committee. An entirely new classification completed af ter almost three years work by an international gremium of experts was published in 1988 by the Headache Classification Committee of the Int ernational Headache Society (IHS). The german translation appeared in 1989. Diagnostic criteria were adapted to the International Classifica tion of Diseases (ICD) and harmonized with the ideas of the World Fede ration of Neurology, the American Federation of Neurology and the Inte rnational Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). The classification of the IHS is a system of hierarchically organized, detailed, operati onalized criteria for reproducable and reliable diagnosis; however, th e precisions involve an increase in complexity. The new IHS classifica tion is a must for the actual standard of diagnosing and treating head ache.