Have you had a brain imaging study in the past (MRI or CT)? If it was a CT, did you receive intravenous contrast dye? Where and when was the study performed, and what were the results? Ideally, you should bring to your visit the scans and copies of the formal reports.

Have you had any other tests in the past that are relevant to your headache syndrome? For example, have you ever undergone a lumbar puncture? If so, was the opening pressure normal, and were the cerebrospinal fluid analyses normal? Again, ideally, you should bring along copies of the formal reports. Have you been hospitalized for headache in the past? If so, try to bring along a copy of your discharge summary.

Past Medical History

Have you ever been hospitalized? if so why? Have you ever needed to take medication chronically for a condition other than headache? if so, for what? Specifically, do you have any history of high blood pressure (hypertension), heart disease, diabetes or stroke? What is your smoking history? Are you actively using alcohol, and if so, how much and how often? Do you have any allergies? If so, and particularly if they relate to specific drugs, describe them.

Current Medications
List all of your current medications, their dosages and the reasons for which you are taking them. Include OTC agents (egs, aspirin, acetaminophen, Excedrin, Excedrin Migraine, BC powders, Goody powders, etc). In the case of abortive medications taken for headache, specify how many days per week on average you take the particular medication, how many you typically take on one of those days and the maximum number you take within a given day. Finally, specify how much caffeine you tend to consume on an average day.

Family History
Most importantly, is there any family history of migraine ("sick headaches")? If so, has it afflicted a first-degree relative (ie mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter)? Is there any family history of brain aneurysm or brain tumor?

Social History
Are you married? Do you have children? Are you employed? What is your living situation? How do you spend a typical day?

General Symptom Review
Rather than an exhaustive litany of every physical symptom you have ever experienced, what the physician needs to know is the following:

1. Are you having a problem with your sleep? If so, are you typically having problems falling asleep, are your awakening multiple times in the night or earlier in the morning than you want to?
2. Are you suffering from an active mood disorder (chronic anxiety, panic attacks, depression, or some combination thereof)? If you are depressed, is it a fatiguing, deenergizing depression, an agitated depression with a strong anxiety component, or both?
3. If female, are you having problems with hormonal imbalance (e.g., breakthrough bleeding, irregular menses, absence of menses), or have you recently undergone a change in your hormonal status (e.g., started or stopped an oral or injectable contraceptive, started or stopped hormone replacement therapy, spontaneous menopause).

Anything Else?
Is there anything else relevant to your headaches or general health that you feel it is important for your physician to know? While this is not the place to undertake an endless soliloquy testifying to the severity of your headaches and the impact they have had on your life, it is a good place to give the physician some idea as to how your headaches specifically have affected your day-to-day life. For example, are your headaches causing you to miss work? to miss school? Have they caused you to be fired? Are they causing a serious problem in your marriage? This subjective information, combined with your headache frequency/severity profile and a simple, standardized disability scale, will assist him or her in better assessing your current status.