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The Headache Service at St George’s provides a specialist (tertiary) assessment and treatment service for patients with complex headache and facial pain in the South West London and Surrey Region (a population of about 3.2 million).

The service runs six specialist headache outpatient clinics each week providing assessment, investigations, advice and treatment to patients suffering with all forms of disabling headache and facial pain.

In addition the service runs a secondary care headache service (Community Headache Hub, based at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton) for direct referrals from GPs of patients with headache from the local area (primarily the London Boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth) following a defined care pathway. Please see below under Referrals for more information on the pathway.

Conditions treated include:

  • Migraine (episodic and particularly chronic migraine)
  • Cluster headache
  • Medication-overuse headache
  • New daily persistent headache
  • Hemicrania continua
  • Paroxysmal hemicrania
  • SUNCT / SUNA
  • Post-traumatic headache
  • Secondary headache disorders

Your appointment

When you first come to the headache service we will need to spend time mapping your medical history so we can get a better understanding of what could be causing your headaches, and how best to treat them.

Mapping your medical history can be a long and complex task. To make the process easier, it is helpful if you can:

  • keep a headache diary with details of how long your headaches last, how painful they are and what medication you take and whether the medication helped or not. You can download a diary below.
  • bring as much information about past medical conditions and treatments with you as you can.