Abstract

Chronic headache imposes considerable burdens on the sufferer and on society as w ell. Recent evidence suggests that migraine is a chronic and sometimes clinically progressive disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of headache. Indentifying risk factors for headache chronification and understanding of its mechanism help to establish intervention strategies on disease progression. In this article, I review the epidem iology of chronic daily headache, the em erging concepts of m igraine as a progressive disorder based on clinical evidences, the known risk factors for headache pro-gression, the reported m echanisms of m igraine chronification, and the treatm ent strategies that could reduce the burden of m igraine and possibly prevent disease progression. Korean Journal of Headache 7(1):4-11, 2006