According to WHO and IHS, 50% of the adult population have suffered from headache during the course of a year. Many factors can influence the pain, but to recognize individual ones and then be able to reduce them could be challenging for patients.

Headache diaries are daily notes describing factors such as diet, activity, response to therapeutic procedures done by a patient (Marcus, Ready 2017).

They can lead to a hypothesis what could be a trigger of the pain, which may in the following enable the patient to reduce its influence. The idea is also to improve communication between the patient and the physician, providing information about otucomes of received medication or other therapeutic forms (Bevilaqua-Grossi 2016). For that reason, they may be also used as a reassessment tool for physical therapists.

Sounds as perfect as it can be for the patient - the possibility of uncovering the reason of headache, feeling of better control over the problem and good communication skill with the therapist. Whoever did it for the first time with the patient cannot be left unrewarded. But is it always as good as it seems? Or better to ask: is it good for each of our patients?

In worldwide respected neuromusculoskeletal concepts as CRAFTA® or Maitland Manual Therapy approach, the patient is always in the main of focus of the therapist (Maitland 2001, von Piekartz 2015).  Let’s then take a closer look at our patient example.