Coronavirus: pain service update
In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, please read our advice and information before sending any referrals.
About us
The headache service at Guy's and St Thomas' is one of the largest dedicated clinical and research services in the UK that focuses exclusively on the diagnosis and management of headache and facial pain disorders. It runs in close association with the pain management and neuromodulation centre, an internationally centre of clinical and academic excellence in the management of chronic pain.
The headache service runs 15 specialist outpatient clinics per week providing assessment, investigations and treatments for patients with complex disabling headache and facial pain disorders.
We also started the only fast-track cluster headache clinic in the United Kingdom, which aims to assess and treat patients within two weeks from GP referral. This allows episodic cluster headache patients to be assessed as soon as they enter a cluster bout and difficult-to-treat chronic cluster headache patients, to be offered a specialist management approach without having to wait for months.
Our service also addresses the psychological, physical and social impacts of chronic pain with pain management programmes, delivered through the INPUT pain management department.
As well as serving our local populations of Southwark and Lambeth, we are one of the very few headache services that accepts tertiary referrals from other neurologists and GPs across the country for patients with complex head and facial pain disorders.
Conditions treated
We treat the following headache-related conditions:
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- chronic and episodic migraine
- cluster headache
- SUNCT and SUNA headache
- paroxysmal hemicrania
- hemicrania continua
- hemiplegic migraine
- facial pain disorders
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- trigeminal neuralgia and trigeminal neuropathies
- medication overuse headache
- new persistent daily headache
- persistent migraine aura
- secondary headache disorders (post-traumatic headache, idiopathic intracranial hypertension).