Teaching courses will be held during the congress from 4 to 7 December.
These sessions are designed to enhance clinical care, research, and educational practices.
To view the available topics, please check the course list. Note that teaching courses require separate registration and are only available for on-site participants.
Preclinical models in headache research
The teaching course will cover several preclinical models from cells and blood vessels to cortical spreading depression. Reviewing their utility in headache research and providing participants with a solid grounding in current headache models. Critically, the course will provide an opportunity to hear from leading experts, covering the pros and cons of each.
4 December 2024
09:00 – 10:00 UTC
Breakout room 1
TC chair: Philip R. Holland, London | UK
| Animal Models for CSD Arn M.J.M. van den Maagdenberg, Leiden | NL |
| Vascular animal models Carlos Miguel Villalón Herrera, Mexico City | MX |
| iPSC-derived models Tessa de Vries, Rotterdam | NL |
Craniofacial disorders and headache
Doctor, my head hurts...This is the beginning of many clinical stories. This session aims to help the attendees to better understand the clinical work-up of craniofacial pain. This journey will begin with a review of the pathophysiology, will go through the clinical and diagnostic aspects, and will end up with the current and future treatment options.
1. Pathophysiological mechanisms of craniofacial pain, from bench to bedside.
Knowledge about the structures and pathways that are involved in craniofacial pain has significantly increased. This session will review the involved neuropeptides and the mechanisms implicated in the genesis, and perpetuation of pain. Preclinical and clinical models will be premanted and will be used to illustrate some craniofacial painful conditions.
2. Diagnosis of typical and atypical craniofacial pain conditions
Differential diagnosis of craniofacial pain is not an easy peasy. Multiple secondary causes may manifest as craniofacial pain, and when these are properly ruled out, several primary headache disorders should be considered. The pearls and pitfalls of the clinical diagnosis, and the diagnostic work-up will be revisited in this session.
3. Update on novel targets for craniofacial pain
A lot is going on regarding the treatment of migraine, however, other primary and secondary headache disorders matter too. This session will review the existing treatment options for these headache disorders. All the prospect therapies that are currently under development and that may join the treatment armamentarium in the near future.
4 December 2024
09:00 – 10:00 UTC
Breakout room 2
TC chair: David Garcia-Azorin, Valladolid | ES
| Pathophysiological mechanisms of craniofacial pain, from bench to bedside Eloisa Rubio-Beltran, London | UK |
| Diagnosis of typical and atypical craniofacial pain conditions David Garcia-Azorin, Valladolid | ES |
| Update on novel targets for craniofacial pain Alejandro Labastida-Ramirez, London | UK |
Hormones and headache in women, clinical cases
First, we will give a brief overview of the hormone fluctuations in the menstrual cycle and the properties of different therapeutical hormones used for contraception, perimenopause symptoms, endometriosis treatment, and hormone replacement in menopause or early menopause. Then, we will dive into the clinical management of three women with migraine ranging from adolescence to menopause. The discussion will center on the positive or negative effects of the various hormones in respect of both, the gynecologic needs and the effect on migraine.
The aim is to allow the migraine specialist to better understand and manage the hormonal mechanisms of migraine in women at different ages.
Participants are invited to contribute with own cases to a lively discussion.
Prof. Dr Gabriele Susanne Merki-Feld is a Gynaecologic Endocrinologist with over 30 years of experience. She has conducted intensive research into contraception, hormone-induced migraines and endometriosis, published over 50 scientific articles and received the Hans Ruedi Isler Prize in 2017. She has been working in neurology at the University of Bern since 2024.
5 December 2024
08:00 – 09:00 UTC
Breakout room 2
TC chair:
Christoph Schankin, Bern | CH
Gabriele Susanne Merki-Feld, Zürich | CH
| Adolescent 17 year old teen develops nearly monthly migraine: What do you want to know and how would you treat her? |
| Perimenopausal woman with now 16 migraine attacks monthly, suffers from sleeping disorders. Before she experienced typically not more than 3 attacks/month |
| Postmenopausal woman with osteoporosis. Migraine improved significantly with menopause. Would you recommend HRT? How would you do this? |
Locomotor clinical investigation of a headache patient – clues for cervicogenic and/or tension-type headache
This course is designed to enhance participants' skills in musculoskeletal assessment of the cervical spine, with a focus on integrating these findings into a comprehensive neurological evaluation. Emphasizing the role of musculoskeletal assessment in identifying cervicogenic and tension-type headaches, the course covers essential techniques such as dynamic pain provocation and manual cervical spine examination. Through a combination of lectures, hands-on practice, and case-based discussions, participants will gain the ability to apply these techniques effectively. The goal is to improve diagnostic accuracy and patient management by incorporating locomotor assessments into routine clinical practice.
5 December 2024
08:00 – 09:00 UTC
Breakout room 3
TC chair: Willem De Hertogh, Antwerpen | BE
TC Speaker: René F. Castien, Amsterdam | NL
Neuroepidemiology: the basics
Objective:
This one-hour course aims to provide participants with a concise overview of key health data science tasks—description, prediction, and causal inference—within the context of headache research. Additionally, it will introduce the concept of confounding and its implications in epidemiological headache research.
Overview:
The session will introduce the three health data science tasks: description, prediction, and causal inference. Participants will begin by exploring descriptive methods, which involve summarizing and characterizing data to understand the burden and distribution of headache disorders within a population and discuss potential threats. Following this, the course will cover the fundamentals of prediction models, focusing on techniques used in predicting headache outcomes or treatment success. The third segment will address causal inference, explaining methods to determine cause-and-effect relationships in headache research. In the final part of the course, the concept of confounding will be introduced, highlighting how confounding can distort the observed associations between exposure and outcome. This session will equip attendees with a basic understanding of identifying and accounting for confounding in their research.
6 December 2024
08:00 – 09:00 UTC
Breakout room 1
TC chair: Tobias Kurth, Berlin | DE
TC Speaker:
Linda Al-Hassany, Rotterdam | NL
Chisato Ito, Berlin | DE
Nerve block treatments in headache: hands on teaching course
Join us for an immersive, hands-on teaching course on nerve block treatments in headache management at the European Headache Congress. This practical session will allow participants to directly apply nerve block techniques under expert guidance, complemented by case-based training videos for a comprehensive learning experience. Perfect for clinicians looking to enhance their skills and expand their therapeutic options, this course offers a unique opportunity to gain confidence and proficiency in the application of nerve blocks for headache management.
6 December 2024
08:00 – 09:30 UTC
Breakout room 1
TC chair: Derya Uludüz, Istanbul | TR
| Understanding the underlying mechanisms: pathways to pain relief Raffaele Ornello, L'Aquilla | IT |
| Precision targeting: GON, LON, SO, ST and SPG blocks (theory and practice) Aynur Özge, Mersin | TR |
| Botulinum toxin: unlocking relief for chronic headache sufferers Derya Uludüz, Istanbul | TR |
| Panel discussion and Q&A |
Neuroepidemiology: intermediate level course
Objective:
This one-hour course is designed to familiarize participants with methods to control confounding and introduce the target trial framework within the context of headache research.
Overview:
The session will start with a detailed examination of various tools to control for confounding, emphasizing multivariable analysis techniques. Participants will also learn the basics of propensity score methods, including propensity score matching, stratification, and weighting. The latter part of the course will introduce the target trial framework, a conceptual approach that aims to design observational studies in a way that emulates a hypothetical randomized controlled trial. This framework provides a structured methodology for causal inference, offering a robust way to draw conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships in real-world headache research settings. By the end of this course, participants will understand how to apply these advanced methods to enhance the validity of their epidemiological studies on headache disorders.
7 December 2024
08:00 – 09:30 UTC
Breakout room 1
TC chair: Tobias Kurth, Berlin | DE
TC speaker:
Linda Al-Hassany, Rotterdam | NL
Chisato Ito, Berlin | DE
Migraine: mimics, borderlands and chameleons
MIGRAINE MIMICS teaching session
- 15 minutes -Introduction with quiz - Prof Heather Angus-Leppan
- 20 minutes- Unteasing the mimics from migraine
- 20 minutes - case based discussion
"Doctor my eye is droopy"
"Dizzy and drowsy"
"Have I got a brain tumour?"
Cases from the floor
15 minutes - Quiz re-visited, & questions
My brief Bio:
Professor Heather Angus-Leppan MBBS (Hons), MSc (Ep), MD, FRACP, FRCP PGCE FHEA is Professor of Medical Education at University of East London, Consultant Neurologist at the Royal Free Hospital, and Honorary Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant in the Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology London and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square. She has special interests in migraine, epilepsy and education.
7 December 2024
08:00 – 09:30 UTC
Breakout room 1
TC chair: Heather Angus-Leppan, London | GB
| Introduction with quiz Heather Angus-Leppan, London | GB |
| Unteasing the mimics from migraine Jakob Paungarttner, Linz | AT |
| Case based discussion |
Quiz re-visited & questions |