Professor Hans-Christoph Diener

Professor Hans-Christoph Diener is Head of Neurology and Director of the Essen Headache Centre at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany – the second largest headache centre in Europe.

Professor Diener is an international renowned expert in the area of headache and chronic pain. His special research interest is the biology of chronic headache disorders, brain imaging and integrative headache care. He runs clinical trials on acute treatment and prophylaxis of headache disorders. Professor Diener performed major studies in the epidemiology of chronic headache supported by the German Ministry of Research and Education. Professor Diener also runs a large clinic for patients with chronic back pain.

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Chronic low back pain and headache have a high prevalence in the population. In 2015 several randomized trials were published on the treatment of chronic low back pain. One of these trials showed that acetaminophen is not superior to placebo. Local injections of corticosteroids provide only minor benefit. Physical therapy and exercise seem to provide the best long-term benefit. Triptans are the most effective drugs for the treatment of migraine. Effective migraine treatment with drugs that can be given to patients with cardiovascular diseases are needed. Humanized antibodies against a polypeptide released during migraine attacks (CGRP) are investigated for the prevention of episodic and chronic migraine. At present these new drugs seem to be effective and they have only minor adverse activity. Progress has also been made in the treatment of neuropathic pain and small fibre polyneuropathy.