Assessment of International Headache Society Diagnostic Criteria: A Reliability Study

Abstract

In 1988 the International Headache Society (IHS) introduced new diagnostic criteria for headaches and craniofacial pain. Since headaches can be diagnosed solely on the basis of information provided by the patient, it is essential that the criteria are reproducible and consistent. phenomena to a form designed to reflect the IHS criteria. Interobserver concordance (kappa statistics) in the application of the diagnostic hemicrania; kappa = 0.88 for migraine; kappa = 0.75 for tension-type headache; (ii) “almost perfect” to “substantial” for the second digit migraine without aura; kappa = 0.71 for chronic tension-type headache; kappa = 0.66 for cluster headache-like disorder not fulfilling the eria. These results show that the IHS diagnostic criteria are satisfactorily applicable to high quality medical records abstracted by experienced.