The German Pain Society (DGS) has published a new clinical practice guideline, "Primary Headache Disorders," for the treatment of this very common and often trivialized health condition in Western industrialized nations. Dr. Gerhard HH Müller-Schwefe, President of the German Pain Society, explains: "The new guideline provides practical instructions and support for diagnosis and therapy." It can be downloaded immediately from www.dgs-praxisleitlinien.de .
Headaches can now be precisely classified and diagnosed. The German Pain Society (DGS) Practice Guideline offers numerous recommendations and information, as well as starting points and suggestions for successful and patient-centered treatment of symptomatic headaches. Numerous DGS pain centers and DGS physicians contributed to the development of the new DGS Practice Guideline 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 participants have defined new standards for patient-centered pain management with their recommendations.
The recently published practice guideline continues the series of guidelines on particularly important topics in pain medicine. All previously published DGS practice guidelines provide recommendations for various indications in pain medicine, based on scientific data and the experience of physicians working in pain and palliative care. The DGS practice guidelines "Tumor Pain," "Tumor-Related Breakthrough Pain," and "Good Substitution Practice in Pain and Palliative Medicine" have already been completed. Further DGS practice guidelines are currently under review or in development.
The German Pain Society's (DGS) practice guidelines are distinguished primarily by the fact that they not only draw on the complete available scientific literature as a basis for treatment decisions, but also incorporate the experience of physicians who work with patients daily—that is, their own internal evidence—as well as the input of the patients themselves, who are extensively involved in the development of these guidelines through the German Pain League (DSL), a patient self-help organization. "This gives the DGS practice guidelines a completely different legitimacy and practical relevance," says Müller-Schwefe, the president of the pain medicine association.
The German Pain Society (DGS) is the largest European medical society with over 4,000 members, dedicated to improving the care of pain patients and promoting a better understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic pain. It is organized nationwide in more than 120 regional pain centers, which host interdisciplinary pain conferences. The DGS's primary goal is to improve the care of people with chronic pain. This can only be achieved by establishing algology (the study of pain) as a discipline within medicine. This includes quality assurance in pain medicine through the establishment of treatment standards and the improvement of basic, advanced, and continuing medical education in pain diagnostics and pain therapy for physicians of all specialties. The DGS publishes the Pain Therapy Guide, which lists all its members. Together with the German Pain League (Deutsche Schmerzliga e.V.), the DGS organizes the annual German Pain and Palliative Care Day in Frankfurt am Main. Further information is available online at www.dgschmerzmedizin.de
Here you can read or download the practice guideline directly.
Leave a comment