Practice guidelines for headaches DGSThe German Society for Pain Medicine (DGS) has published “Primary Headache Disorders”, a new practical guideline for the treatment of this very common and most often trivialized health disorder in western industrialized nations. The President of the German Society for Pain Medicine, Dr. med. Gerhard HH Müller-Schwefe explains: “The new guidelines provide practical instructions and assistance with diagnostics and therapy.” It can now be downloaded www.dgs-praxisleitlinien.de

Headaches can now be classified and diagnosed precisely. The DGS practice guidelines offer numerous recommendations and information as well as starting points and suggestions for successful and patient-oriented treatment of symptomatic headaches. Numerous DGS pain centers and DGS doctors have helped shape the new DGS practice guidelines based on their daily work with patients. Under the leadership of the responsible guideline author Prof. Dr. med. Dipl.-Psych. Hartmut Göbel from the Kiel Pain Clinic, all those involved have defined new standards for patient-oriented pain medical care with their recommendations.

The currently published practice guidelines continue the series of guidelines on particularly important pain medicine topics. All DGS practice guidelines published to date provide recommendations for various indications in pain medicine based on scientific data and the experiences of doctors working in pain and palliative medicine. To date, the DGS practice guidelines “Tumor pain”, “Tumor-related breakthrough pain” and “Good substitution practice in pain and palliative medicine” have been completed. Further DGS practice guidelines are in the comment phase or are currently being created.

The DGS practice guidelines are essentially characterized by the fact that they not only use the entire available scientific literature as a basis for therapy decisions, but also the experience of the doctors who work with patients on a daily basis, i.e. their own internal evidence, as well as the affected patients themselves. who are extensively involved in the design of these guidelines through the German Pain League eV (DSL) as a patient self-help organization. “The DGS practice guidelines gain a completely different legitimacy and practical relevance from this,” says Müller-Schwefe, the president of the pain physicians.

The German Society for Pain Medicine eV (DGS), with more than 4,000 members, is the largest European medical association that is committed to better care for pain patients and to a better understanding and better diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain. It is organized nationwide in more than 120 regional pain centers where interdisciplinary pain conferences are held. The primary goal of the DGS is to improve care for people with chronic pain. This can only be achieved by establishing algesiology in medicine. This includes quality assurance in pain medicine through the establishment of therapy standards as well as the improvement of training, further education and training in the areas of pain diagnostics and pain therapy for doctors of all disciplines. The DGS publishes the pain therapy guide in which all members are listed. Together with the German Pain League eV, the DGS organizes the annual German Pain and Palliative Care Day in Frankfurt/Main. Further information online www.dgwürmedizin.de

You can read or download the practical guidelines directly