Headache Clinic

More than 70% of Americans will suffer headache pain severe enough to compel them to seek medical attention at some point during their lifetimes. A small but substantial minority of patients experience chronic daily or near daily headaches, which significantly impacts the quality of their lives and the lives of their families.

Types of headaches

Patients can suffer from a variety of headache disorders.

Primary headaches include:

• migraines with and without auras
• tension-type headaches
• cluster headaches
  

These types of headaches, among others, initially must be distinguished from headaches due to medical disorders such as strokes and tumors.

How we help patients

A first goal is to refer patients to appropriate medical or surgical colleagues if their headaches may be signs of other medical problems. When no medical cause is found, as is the case with the majority of patients who have developed primary headache disorders, the goal is to tailor a regimen that effectively reduces the frequency and severity of headaches. Our goal is to alleviate the pain in these patients as well as those patients with more episodic, but equally disruptive, headaches – restoring a sense of wellbeing and returning the patient to acceptable functional status.

Heachace Specialists at Lakewood Hospital

Cynthia Bamford, MD	Stephen Samples, MD

Drs. Bamford and Samples are board-certified neurologists specially trained in headache management. They also have the support of a help of a multidisciplinary team, which includes a headache clinical nurse specialist who will oversee patient management and individualize treatment plans. 

Headache Clinical Nurse Specialist
The clinical nurse specialist is an integral part of our program, serving as an coordinator for the initial assessment and follow-up care. 

Infusion Center
The clinical nurse specialist is also in charge of our infusion suite, a treatment room devoted to intravenous infusions specific for headaches. This suite is under the guidance of our staff physician, and provides “same day” care for patients. The infusion suite successfully functions as a site where patients can be detoxified from medications that perpetuate headaches. It functions as an alternative to hospitalization. Combined with innovative approaches developed at The Cleveland Clinic, the headache team has successfully treated many chronic headache patients as outpatients.

To make an appointment, or for more information, please call 216.529.7110.