The role of community pharmacists in managing common headache disorders, and their integration within structured headache services: position statement on behalf of the European Headache Federation (EHF) and Lifting The Burden (LTB: the Global Campaign against Headache), with the formal endorsement of the International Pharmaceutical Federation.

Abstract

In the sustainable development goals (SDG) context of seeking universal health coverage, the expanding gap between the supply of specialized and primary health-care providers of headache-related health care and the care needs of the very large number of people affected by headache is a formidable but not insoluble public-health challenge. Structured headache services provide a cost-effective framework wherein controlled patient flows enable the care needs of people with headache to be met at appropriate levels, but these services may still be overwhelmed by inappropriate demand.Community pharmacists are an underutilized resource, potentially well able to provide the solution. To do so, they must, as a profession, be integrated into structured headache services.What remains to be determined is how to achieve this integration in an encouraging climate for change, which recognises the potential for relieving strained health-care systems and meeting a range of health-care needs by expanding pharmacists' scope of practice.This position statement on behalf of the European Headache Federation (EHF) and Lifting The Burden (LTB) is formally endorsed by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).