The Houston Headache Clinic

Headache: A major health problem

Approximately 30 to 40 million Americans suffer from chronic recurrent headaches. Seventy-five percent of them are women. The loss of productivity, the billions of dollars spent on ineffective and harmful forms of treatment, habituation to medications and secondary problems in family, social, and sex life in these patients are enormous. Frequent headaches interfere with their ability to function and enjoy life.

An adequate understanding about chronic headache is lacking among the public. Beliefs about headaches and attitudes toward headache sufferers need to be changed. Many believe that headaches indicate a personal weakness, or they are afraid others will think they bring headaches on themselves in order to get sympathy or to avoid responsibility. These attitudes are unfair to headache sufferers, for they may deprive them of the help and relief they need and deserve.

The majority of recurrent headaches fall under the categories of migraine, cluster headache, and chronic daily headaches. Often recurrent headaches are falsely attributed to "allergy," "sinus," and psychological problems. Misconceptions have created a tendency to attribute headaches to the often questionable diagnosis of TMJ syndrome.

Houston Headache Clinic

Established in 1976, the Houston Headache Clinic is one of the few clinics in the country which specialize in the diagnosis and management of headache problems. It is directed by a neurologist who has had extensive clinical and research experience in headache and related neurological fields. The clinic draws patients from all over the U.S.A. and abroad.

The director of the clinic, Dr. Ninan T. Mathew, M.D., F.R.C.P.(c), is a past president of the American Association for the Study of Headache, immediate past chairman of the American Council for Headache Education (ACHE), and is on the editorial board of the scientific journals on headache, namely Headache and Cephalalgia. He is one of the founding members of the international research group on cluster headache and is a past president of the International Headache Society. He was the chairman of the Fifth International Headache Congress held in Washington D.C. in June 1991. Dr. Mathew has more than 160 scientific publications to his credit (View list of publications), most of them dealing with headache and related disorders. He has written chapters in various textbooks and monographs dealing with headaches and has edited a book on cluster headache and a periodical on modern advances in headache. Dr. Mathew is also a Fellow of the American Academy on Neurology and has been on the faculty of the courses offered at the annual meeting of the Academy. Dr. Mathew has given numerous invited lectures on headache in various medical meetings and universities across the country and internationally, in addition to appearing on numerous radio and television programs for the National Migraine Foundation and the American Council for Headache Education.

Dr. Mathew is on the active medical staff of prestigious Houston hospitals such as the Methodist Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital, Hermann Hospital, and Park Plaza Hospital.