Headache & Migraine
Confident diagnosis, safe red-flag triage and modern management of headache and migraine in primary care — including the CGRP era.
Reviewed and kept current
Last editorial review: 6 June 2026 · Next scheduled refresh: 1 September 2026.
The commonest neurological presentation in primary care
Headache accounts for a large share of primary-care and neurology workload, yet migraine remains under-diagnosed and under-treated — and the therapeutic landscape has been transformed by CGRP-targeted therapies. This CAS gives GPs, prescribing pharmacists and advanced clinical practitioners a confident, safe, current approach: classify accurately, exclude the dangerous, and treat well.
It is built on NICE CG150,1 the BASH national management guidelines,2 SIGN 1553 and the ICHD-3 classification.4 Safe triage comes first: every learner finishes able to separate primary headache from the secondary causes that must not be missed.
Mr C, 47 — new daily headache for 6 weeks, worse on waking and with coughing. Decision point: which features here are red flags, what is the right imaging pathway, and how soon? Recognising the dangerous headache is the first competence this programme builds.
Exclude the dangerous, then classify
A disciplined triage pathway — red flags before reassurance — is the backbone of safe headache practice.
Every headache is screened for red flags before a primary-headache diagnosis is made.
By the end of the CAS, you will be able to
Eight modules across four strands
One module per week (Weeks 1–8), each a five-path living lesson plus a live workshop and a confidence-rated knowledge check. Weeks 9–10 are integration and assessment.
Classify
ICHD-3 · safe triage
Treat acute
Migraine · MOH
Prevent
Preventives · CGRP era
Refine & lead
Special groups · service
Module 1 · Foundations & classification (ICHD-3)
You will be able to: take a structured headache history, use a headache diary, and classify primary headache with ICHD-3. Aligned to: ICHD-3, NICE CG150, BASH.
Module 2 · Safe triage & red flags
Apply the SNNOOP10 red-flag framework; choose imaging appropriately; recognise thunderclap headache, giant cell arteritis, raised intracranial pressure and other not-to-miss causes. Aligned to: NICE CG150, BASH.
Module 3 · Migraine — acute management
Step and stratified care; triptans, NSAIDs and antiemetics; route choice; why opioids and ergots are avoided; the place of gepants and ditans. Aligned to: NICE CG150, SIGN 155, BASH.
Module 4 · Migraine — prevention & the CGRP era
Choose and monitor oral preventives (with valproate safety in women of childbearing potential); CGRP monoclonal antibodies and gepants per NICE technology appraisals; botulinum toxin A for chronic migraine; referral thresholds. Aligned to: NICE TAs, BASH, ABN.
Module 5 · Medication-overuse headache
Recognise, explain and manage MOH; withdrawal strategies; relapse prevention. Aligned to: NICE CG150, BASH.
Module 6 · Tension-type headache & the TACs
Manage tension-type headache; recognise and triage cluster headache and the other trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias; acute oxygen and subcutaneous triptan; when to refer. Aligned to: NICE CG150, BASH.
Module 7 · Special groups
Menstrual migraine; migraine and contraception/HRT; pregnancy and breastfeeding; young people aged 12–17 (nasal triptan first). Aligned to: NICE CG150, BASH, FSRH.
Module 8 · Leadership, quality & service governance
Design a community headache service; audit and quality improvement; prescribing governance; health economics; mentorship. This strand scaffolds your capstone. Aligned to: NHS England multi-professional framework, NICE.
The Acumen Mastery Loop
Every lesson is built as a cycle that moves knowledge into durable, examinable competence — then keeps it current.
Encode
Five-path living lesson.
Retrieve
Low-stakes recall.
Space
Boosters at widening intervals.
Calibrate
Confidence + feedback.
Master
Re-test to proficiency.
Refresh
Kept current.
Built for the extended-scope primary-care team
GPs, prescribing pharmacists and advanced clinical practitioners who want structured, current, assessed expertise in headache and migraine — and the confidence to run a community headache clinic. The baseline is Level 7; an optional Professor Mode stretch reaches the doctoral-tier frontier.
The CGRP story — from neuropeptide biology and cortical spreading depression to monoclonal antibodies, gepants and ditans — is one of the cleanest examples of mechanism-to-medicine in modern neurology. Appraising the preventive-trial evidence (responder thresholds, placebo response, the meaning of "50% responder rate") is exactly the kind of critical reasoning Professor Mode surfaces — as enrichment, never as a hurdle to pass.
Assessed at Level 7; distinction reaches to Level 8
Three elements, completed across Weeks 9–10. The pass standard sits at Level 7 — the optional Professor-Mode material earns distinction, and is never a hurdle to pass.
A balanced blueprint: applied knowledge, a workplace capstone, and a defended presentation.
Your capstone is a workplace asset. Choose a community headache-service design, a quality-improvement plan, a critical appraisal (e.g. of the CGRP preventive evidence), or an aligned complex case series — built for your own setting.
A credential that doesn't quietly go out of date
Headache therapeutics are moving fast — new gepants, new appraisals. Your award keeps pace.
Every lesson, reference and self-assessment item is current with NICE CG150, BASH and the latest technology appraisals.
When guidance moves while you are studying, the affected material is reviewed and refreshed, under the Director's clinical sign-off.
The certificate states the period over which its content is warranted current.
A short Currency Update micro-lesson with a brief self-assessment re-dates your award's currency — indefinitely.
Reviewed and kept current
Beyond a question bank
Reference tools teach facts. A CAS proves you can triage safely and treat well — with something to show for it.
The six-block quality framework
A Bologna-aligned scheme governs every programme, end to end.
1 · Curriculum
Mapped to cornerstone guidelines and the relevant professional frameworks.
2 · Assessment
Blueprinted to the learning outcomes; standards held at the award's level.
3 · Faculty
Director-level clinical sign-off on every module and item before it goes live.
4 · Risk governance
An auditable trail; nothing publishes ungated; currency actively maintained.
5 · Student feedback
Structured feedback loops feed programme enhancement each cycle.
6 · Programme monitoring
Ongoing monitoring → enhancement, reviewed on a quarterly cadence.
Awarding & alignment. Awarded by New Vision University (FHEQ Level 7 · 20 UK credits / 10 ECTS); delivered by MD Acumen Ltd. Curriculum-aligned with NICE CG150, the BASH national guidelines, SIGN 155, the ICHD-3 classification, the Association of British Neurologists and the NHS England multi-professional framework. A CAS is an academic award — not a UK degree, GMC registration or specialist registration.
"Curriculum-aligned with" describes explicit content mapping to a body's published guidelines. This page never claims endorsement that has not been confirmed in writing.
Evidence base
The cornerstone guidance the curriculum is mapped to. Editions current at the last editorial review; links open the issuing body.
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Headaches in over 12s: diagnosis and management (CG150). Updated 2025. nice.org.uk/guidance/cg150
- British Association for the Study of Headache. National Headache Management guidelines. BASH, 2019. bash.org.uk/guidelines
- Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. SIGN 155: Pharmacological management of migraine. SIGN, 2018. sign.ac.uk
- International Headache Society. International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition (ICHD-3). IHS. ichd-3.org
Advance your headache practice
Join the next cohort, or talk to us about a cohort licence for your team or training hub.
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