National Headache Foundation
Helping People with Headache for 40 Years
Fact Sheet
June 2010 marks the National Headache Foundation’s 40th anniversary. Over the past four decades, the NHF has revolutionized the approach to understanding and treating headache. By advancing education, funding research, and fueling new treatment development, the NHF has led the way in this complex area of medicine. Today, there is a better understanding of the causes behind headache, more comprehensive education for migraine sufferers, and a variety of powerful treatments to tackle this biological disease.
With dozens of public education campaigns, a comprehensive support group network, online learning modules and toolkits, and a toll-free hotline, the NHF has assisted millions of headache sufferers seek education and treatment for their condition. The NHF has also played a central role promoting the education and research of headache with physicians, allied healthcare professionals and health care policy decision makers.
Here, we take a look back at just a handful of the NHF’s achievements over the last four decades.
- Awarded more than $1.7 million and over 200 headache research grants, funding such studies as the relationship of pregnancy and headaches; evaluation of concentration and memory in patients suffering posttraumatic headache; and the results of various treatments of acute headaches in emergency rooms. To date, this investment has resulted in the funding of more than $6 million in National Institutes of Health research grants.
- Created a widespread network of 23 support groups across the U.S.
- Provides its members and the public with unparalleled resources for headache information, including:
- Online toolkits for managing headache pain and seeking treatment o Toll-free hotline
- Quarterly NHF HeadLines newsletter, with a new focus on children in the “Kids Korner” column
- Peer-to-peer mentoring program and email pen pal program o Regular, free educational teleconference series
- Online educational modules, including Headache U, the first educational program of its kind which matches sufferers with resources based on personal headache patterns
- Established the Certification Board in Headache Management that recognizes and identifies those physicians who have had extra training in the management of headache
- Developed Migraine Attack Profile for professionals, a new tool to help Healthcare Providers match the right drug to the right patient
- Launched the H.E.A.D.A.C.H.E. Project with the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine to help educators address the development of appropriate curriculum for headache education
- Sponsors National Headache Awareness Week annually each June to promote headache awareness across the country with free screenings and public seminars
- Provides regular headache news and updates via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
- Assists war veterans with managing headache pain with the new and developing War Veterans Health Resource Initiative
