Could a Headache Diary Help with Your Headache Diagnosis?

Keeping a headache diary can be helpful in a number of ways. If you record enough detail, it can assist you in identifying your triggers. It doesn’t take long to jot down time of day, weather conditions, and factors such as stress, menstrual cycle, or other suspected triggers. Recording response to medication can also be useful to your health care provider.

If you have not yet been diagnosed with a specific headache type, keeping a record of the location, duration, frequency, and type of pain you experience can be very helpful to the physician who evaluates you.

If you are trying to identify food triggers, a food diary kept along with a headache diary can also be useful. There are many different headache diary formats available, varying in detail. Some people prefer an electronic diary app and others prefer a paper diary or calendar.  This is a simple paper one to get you started. download pdf