Excitement Behind the 2023 American Headache Society Symposium: Emad Estemalik, MD

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"You see a lot of lectures in terms of clinical experience, real-world evidence, but also highlighting a lot of the new data on many of the novel treatments that have emerged in the past few years."

Migraine headache has long been recognized as one of the most burdensome and prevalent diseases worldwide. There are several types of migraine, including abdominal migraine, basilar-type migraine, hemiplegic migraine, menstrual-related migraine, retinal migraine, and migraine without headache. In recent years, there have been significance advances in the treatment of these disorders, including the introduction of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-targeting agents, which have proven to be effective and safe options.

In addition to its traditional meeting, the American Headache Society (AHS) is hosting its annual Headache Symposium, taking place November 15-19th in Scottsdale, Arizona. The 4-day event is designed for not just neurologists and headache specialists, but for a wide range of medical professionals including general practitioners, psychiatrists, physician assistants, nurses, dentists, and much more. Throughout the meeting, attending clinicians can learn more about the advances in headache migraine disorders, including ways to enhance patients experience, complementary medicine, and headache in children, among other topics.

Prior to the meeting, NeurologyLive® sat down with Emad Estemalik, MD, director of the headache section at Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute, to discuss the excitement around the event fueled by some of the recent advances in the field. Estemalik, who serves as an assistant professor of neurology at the Lerner School of Medicine, also provided context on some of the current unmet needs in the field, such as why certain patients and genders experience a worse condition. While he recognizes the significant strides made, Estemalik believes there is room for continued growth.