A headache disorder that becomes constant from onset without a preceding history of headache escalation.
✦ AI summary
New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH) is a rare primary headache disorder marked by a sudden, clearly remembered onset of daily, unrelenting head pain lasting more than three months in someone without a prior headache history [1][7][12]. It's uncommon overall, affecting roughly 0.06% of adults generally but a larger share of people seen at headache clinics, and it's notably more common among adolescents with chronic daily headache than adults [12]. Its causes aren't well understood, but research points to several possible contributors: some cases follow an infection, with one report describing improvement after steroid treatment and signs of mild inflammation in spinal fluid [7], others have been linked to long COVID [6], and rare cases have even turned out to be caused by an underlying condition like cancer spreading to the skull, which resolved with targeted treatment [1]. Brain imaging studies suggest people with NDPH may have differences in brain structure, function, and iron levels in areas tied to pain and emotion processing, though these findings are described as early and exploratory [4][9][10][11]. Diagnosis can be tricky because NDPH overlaps with other severe, continuous headache conditions like status migrainosus and refractory migraine [2][8],
This is an AI-generated summary of the sources below — not medical advice. Always talk to a doctor or pharmacist about your own situation.
Constant headachePressure or throbbingNeck stiffnessSensitivity to lightNauseaFatigue
Calvarial Metastasis of Breast Carcinoma Manifesting as a New Daily Persistent Headache: A Case Report.
New-onset daily persistent headache (NDPH) is a primary headache syndrome characterized by a sudden onset of daily headaches persisting for more than three months in patients with no prior headache history. We report the case of a 49-year-old Indian lady who presented to the neurology outpatient cli…
Diagnostic uncertainty in severe continuous headache: Examining the overlap between status migrainosus, new daily persistent headache, and refractory migraine.
When a headache becomes severe and does not stop for months, the diagnosis is not always clear, even when it seems like migraine. Current definitions of status migrainosus, new daily persistent headache, and refractory migraine overlap, so one patient may fit more than one diagnosis at the same time…
Treatment outcomes in new daily persistent headache in children and adolescents.
BackgroundNew daily persistent headache (NDPH) is a primary headache disorder that often presents in adolescence. Presently, there is no effective treatment for NDPH and a paucity of clinical trials exploring therapeutic options. In this study, we explored the relative benefit of currently used trea…
Patient reported trigger, not the speed of transition to continuous headache, is associated with headache-related disability in children: Results of a cross-sectional clinic-based study.
ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship between the evolution of continuous headache and headache-related disability in children.MethodsThis was a single site cross-sectional study using patient-entered questionnaires from children aged 6-17 who presented to neurology clinic between November 2022-M…
Pediatric New Daily Persistent Headache: Integrating Novel Research Methods to Support and Delineate Evolving Clinical Phenotypes.
Pediatric new daily persistent headache (NDPH) is a clinically defined headache subtype that remains controversial due to a lack of unique and objective mechanistic features. For many headache subtypes, different, and sometimes unique, patterns of structural and functional changes can be observed in…
Long COVID Syndrome and Associated New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH) Presenting With Crossed Clonus Response.
Evaluating patients following a COVID-19 infection with multiple chronic, progressive symptoms can be challenging, but easy to navigate by using the temporal profile obtained from the clinical history, findings from the neurological exam, and screening for red flag symptoms.
Steroid-Responsive, Post-infectious New Daily Persistent Headache With Mild Cerebrospinal Fluid Pleocytosis: A Case Report.
New daily persistent headache (NDPH) is a primary headache disorder characterized by a clearly remembered onset, with the headache becoming daily and unremitting within 24 hours and persisting for more than 3 months. Although antecedent infections have been reported as potential triggering events, t…
Brain networks activated when aggravating baseline chronic pain of an individual with new daily persistent headache: a case study.
In this study we examined neuronal mechanisms associated with chronic headache pain by recruiting a participant diagnosed with New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH), who had the reliable characteristic that his baseline chronic pain could be immediately and consistently modulated (partially relieved…