The Watson Headache Approach and the Medical Model of Headache

[0:00]Hello, I'm Dean Watson of the Watson Headache Clinic and Watson Headache Institute. Despite the vast financial and research resources and over 150 years of research which is focused on exploring the brain for the cause of headache and migraine, the cause remains unknown. The medical model of headache considers the numerous headache and migraine syndromes as different conditions with as yet unknown causes. However, over the past 20 years, many within the medical model have recognized that the model is no longer relevant, or even useful. Diagnosing headache and migraine according to the medical model is highly problematic as one eminent academic and researcher has stated, for the clinician, pain presentations in the headache patient are frequently a diagnostic challenge. Therefore, many afflicted by headache and migraine have been given not one, but two, three, sometimes even four diagnoses. One reason for this is the symptoms of many different headache and migraine types overlap, suggesting that instead of many different headache and migraine types being separate conditions, they are related. This then questions the value of a diagnosis. What's a diagnosis mean? After all, the diagnosis is just based on a set of signs and symptoms. It doesn't tell us what the cause is. However, recent and substantial research has shown that migraine, tension headache, cluster headache, menstrual migraine, all share a common disorder, and that disorder is a sensitized brainstem. This has prompted notable internationally regarded researchers and academics to suggest that perhaps the many different types of headache and migraine are not separate conditions, but just different expressions of a sensitized brainstem. Most migrainers occasionally tolerate a lesser headache resembling a tension headache, while some troubled by tension headache can experience a more severe headache similar to a migraine, reinforcing the idea that headache and migraine conditions are born from the same disorder, and research suggests that this disorder is a sensitized brainstem. I liken the possibility that different headache and migraine conditions are different presentations of one condition to rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is one diagnosis and is one pathophysiology, but unfortunately some are severely affected, crippled by the disease, comparable to a migraine in the headache migraine condition, whilst others are minimally affected by rheumatoid arthritis, perhaps some swelling of the fingers or wrist, corresponding to a tension headache. It has been widely accepted for decades that headache and migraine is characterized by a sensitized brainstem, but the reason or reasons for sensitization have not been established. Perhaps because the focus continues to be on searching for a disorder in the brain. Now, one indisputable neuroanatomical fact is that the brain stem is influenced by information from structures in the upper neck, ligaments, capsules, joints, and the disc. Therefore, abnormal information from disorders of these structures has the potential to sensitize the brainstem. Why this continues to be ignored by the medical model of headache is astounding. Especially given that blocking information from these structures using nerve blocks, that is anesthetizing nerves of the upper neck, and also occipital nerve stimulators, has been shown to relieve symptoms of migraine and other forms of headache, including cluster headache. Now, recent groundbreaking research has shown that the Watson Headache approach, by reproducing and lessening of typical head pain, desensitizes the brainstem, the fundamental disorder of the headache and migraine process. The Watson Headache approach is not only a non-invasive, inexpensive and radiation-free method of confirming disorders of the upper neck as the reason for sensitization of the brain stem, but also provides a drug-free treatment approach for long-term improvement. I'm Dean Watson. Thank you for listening.