AAN 2026 | The growing impact of headache medicine at AAN and key updates in the field

I am pleased over the years that I’ve been coming to the Academy of Neurology, we’ve seen more and more headache medicine involved at many different levels. This year we have, as I mentioned, game shows, scientific symposium, head talks, all sorts of opportunities for people to learn in their own individual ways. There are some clear themes that have come across, one of which is headache medicine in relation to other neurologic fields. So there’s a symposium that’s between neuro-otology, neuro-ophthalmology, and headache medicine. There’s another for women’s health that involves headache medicine amongst those issues that are very specifically pertinent to women’s health. And of course, as you mentioned before, are stroke, epilepsy, and migraine. But even more so, there’s work that’s coming out about the potential associations of migraine and cognitive deficits, several talks about the potential role it may play in risk factors for dementia. We have very important work on sleep and migraine, potentially the role that glymphatic drainage plays in both sleep and headache medicine. So I would say that there are lectures about old treatments. I’m presenting on the history of antiemetics, and there’s newer agents that we’re going to see over the next couple of years that are very specific. For example, the PACAP antagonist, some of that data is being presented as well. And even though that may not have an immediate impact, very likely within the next few years, as we have multiple choices of migraine-specific care, this will make a huge impact on not just practices, but on people.

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