Post–COVID-19 Headache and Migraine: What's the Connection?

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

My name is Deena Kuruvilla. I am a neurologist, a headache specialist, and the medical director of the Westport Headache Institute. I am going to be talking to you today about post–COVID-19 headache and its very complicated relationship with migraine.

We know that since this pandemic started, we have seen so many different neurologic manifestations of SARS-CoV-2. It's been baffling to me as a clinical provider who's worked in the hospital and in the outpatient clinic to see the variety of neurologic manifestations. I've seen everything from headache to dizziness, to loss of smell (anosmia), to changes in taste (ageusia), stroke, encephalopathy, seizure, and Guillain-Barré syndrome. There's been such a potpourri of different variations of neurologic illnesses that we've seen, but I would definitely have to say that headache is by far one of the most common neurologic manifestations of the disease.

As an outpatient physician, patients often follow up with me once they have had the infection and have presented with headache, and I'm usually asked to manage their outpatient headache care. I would have to say that there has been such a broad prevalence of headache after COVID-19. The literature has quoted that anywhere from