For New Patients

At the Jefferson Headache Center, we are committed to a comprehensive approach to diagnosing and treating patients with headache. During your initial visit to our clinical practice, a registered nurse will conduct your interview and document your detailed and comprehensive medical history. You will then have a psychological evaluation by a psychiatrist or psychologist associated with the center. Patients with severe headaches often must cope with unusual amounts of stress, depression, and anxiety. Therefore, the evaluation is a key component to the proper diagnosis, treatment, and management of headache. You will then be seen by one of our physicians, who will conduct your comprehensive headache evaluation, which combines your interview, psychological evaluation and the physician's exam to develop a treatment and management plan specifically for you.

The goal of inpatient treatment is to stop your headache cycle. To do this, you will be given intravenous medications along with continuous IV fluids. You will also receive a low-caffeine diet. We use a team approach to treatment. Your treatment team includes your attending physician, the nurse coordinator, a neurology resident, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and the unit nurses. Other team members may include a physical therapist, dietitian, and medical students. These professionals work together to ensure that you receive comprehensive treatment according to your care needs.

This treatment is reserved for people with severe headaches that have lasted several days with no relief, or for people who have chronic headache and require more aggressive treatment than can be administered in an office or at home. At the first visit to the Bodine Infusion Unit the nurse will complete a history of your medical, social, and psychological needs. You will be in the unit for about five to six hours depending on your treatment.

Biofeedback is a method of learning how to gain voluntary control over seemingly involuntary processes. It includes relaxation training which has been demonstrated to contribute to the reduction of frequency and intensity of headaches. Biofeedback therapy uses external equipment that measures relaxation to produce reduced muscle tension and normalized blood flow.

Patients with complaints of facial pain and/ or TMJ symptoms will receive a comprehensive evaluation including a detailed history of the complaint, a thorough examination, and diagnostic testing if need be. Treatment is tailored to the individual on a case by case basis. Generally, conservative treatment plans are exhausted before more aggressive therapies are considered.

Botulinum toxin is a novel therapy for the treatment of pain. More investigations need to be completed to prove efficacy in treating conditions such as migraine, tension-type headache, and temporomandibular disorders. The Jefferson Headache Center is currently conducting clinical trials looking into the efficacy of this treatment for these conditions.