The Yekaterinburg headache initiative: an interventional project, within the Global Campaign against Headache, to reduce the burden of headache in Russia.

Background: As major causes of global public ill-health and disability, headache disorders are paradoxically ignored in health policy and in planning, resourcing and implementing health services. This is true worldwide. Russia, where the prevalence of headache disorders and levels of attributed disability are well in excess of the global and European averages, is no exception, while arcane diagnoses and treatment preferences are an aggravating factor.