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Italian guidelines for primary headaches: 2012 revised version
• Paola Sarchielli • Franco Granella • Maria Pia Prudenzano • Luigi Alberto Pini • Vincenzo Guidetti • Giorgio Bono • Lorenzo Pinessi • Massimo Alessandri • Fabio Antonaci • Marcello Fanciullacci • Anna Ferrari • Mario Guazzelli • Giuseppe Nappi • Grazia Sances • Giorgio Sandrini • Lidia Savi • Cristina Tassorelli • Giorgio Zanchin     
On behalf of the AdHoc Committee of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches for the Guidelines of Primary Headaches in adults.
J Headache Pain. 2012 May;13 Suppl 2:31-70.

Abstract
The first edition of the Italian diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for primary headaches in adults was published in J Headache Pain 2(Suppl. 1):105–190 (2001). Ten years later, the guideline committee of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches (SISC) decided it was time to update therapeutic guidelines. A literature search was carried out on Medline database, and all articles on primary headache treatments in English, German, French and Italian published from February 2001 to December 2011 were taken into account. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) and meta-analyses were analysed for each drug. If RCT were lacking, open studies and case series were also examined. According to the previous edition, four levels of recommendation were defined on the basis of levels of evidence, scientific strength of evidence and clinical effectiveness. Recommendations for symptomatic and prophylactic treatment of migraine and cluster headache were therefore revised with respect to previous 2001 guidelines and a section was dedicated to non-pharmacological treatment. This article reports a summary of the revised version published in extenso in an Italian version.