GSK and WebMD join on headache education
PARSIPPANY, N.J. - To kick-off National Headache Month, GlaxoSmithKline and WebMD launched web tools aimed at educating headache sufferers on the condition and, more importantly, how to manage head pain, with new tools and engaging content.
"Here's a situation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. By coupling the headache expertise that the makers of Excedrin offer with the timely and trusted health information provided by WebMD, we now have an even more robust offering for headache sufferers everywhere," said Jason Milligan, senior brand manager, Excedrin.
"Millions of consumers turn to WebMD each month to find information about managing headaches and migraines," said Michael Smith, chief medical editor, WebMD. "Both WebMD and the makers of Excedrin have a shared goal of helping consumers to better understand their headache symptoms so they can make more informed decisions about treatment options."
An element of the collaboration includes a survey conducted by WebMD, which shows significant differences between what headache sufferers are doing to treat their pain and what doctors recommend. Findings from the new WebMD survey show that one out of three respondents reports suffering from headaches weekly. According to the survey, 46% of respondents choose to "tough out" their headaches, despite doctor advice. In fact, nine out of 10 physicians suggest not toughing out headaches and eight out of 10 suggest treating headaches early, because there is support for the idea that medications work better when taken at the first sign of a headache.
In addition to key insights from the survey, the following resources are now available:
To help headache and migraine sufferers easily understand which Excedrin product is right for them, the makers of Excedrin developed a Product Selector Tool, available on Excedrin.com. The tool includes a short quiz to help identify the user's symptoms and provides a product recommendation that best suits their needs;
Consumers and healthcare professionals will also have access to headache-related content and tools developed by WebMD's editorial team on WebMD.com/headaches and Medscape.com. These destinations will feature news and articles related to mild to moderate, tension, cluster and migraine headaches and slideshows that depict surprising headache triggers; and
Consumers can access the WebMD Headache Assessments tool, which helps consumer analyze headaches they may experience, and the WebMD Headache Map, which provides content related to possible headache types based on the headache location and frequency.