The lack of correlation between headache disability and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure at baseline and at the end of the randomized phase of a recent study implies that headache in idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) may be related to factors other than intracranial hypertension, and that specific headache treatment is needed in addition to therapies directed at lowering CSF pressure. Researchers investigated relationships between headache disability and various other clinical characteristics at baseline and at 6 months. They found:

• Headache was present in 139 (84%) of the 165 enrollees at baseline.
• Headache was common, of varied character, disabling, and associated with poorer quality of life in patients with mild visual impairment.
• The most common headache phenotypes were migraine (52%), tension-type headache (22%), probable migraine (16%), and probable tension-type headache (4%).
• 51 (37%) participants overused symptomatic medications at baseline, most frequently simple analgesics.
• Headache disability was significantly associated with patient-reported quality of life in the physical, mental, and visual domains.