Specific focus areas are headache and pain genomics, epidemiology and clinical treatment trials.

Our work is highly interdisciplinary and based on collaboration between experts in clinical medicine, physiotherapy, mathematics, genetics and molecular biology.

Goals

Our main goals are to provide better treatment for headache disorders and chronic pain conditions, and to map the genetic basis of these diseases.


We aim at acquiring knowledge about the extent and burden of headache disorders - in order to plan targeted interventions and improve the utilization of healthcare resources.

Projects

  • Norwegian Centre for Headache Research – NorHEAD.
    NorHEAD is a research centre which carries out world-leading research on headache disorders.
    NORHEAD's main goal is to systematize and improve current treatment knowledge, and develop new and innovative therapies for the benefit of patients suffering from headache disorders.
  • HUNT All-In Neuropsychiatry.
    Genetic analyses for neuropsychiatric diseases through data from large population surveys, based on the Health Survey in Trøndelag; HUNT.
  • DecipherPain.
    Decipher mechanisms for improvement and treatment of chronic pain, carried out  through large-scale genetic analysis.
  • Headache biomarkers.
    Analyses of biomarkers for migraine, with samples taken during and between attacks.
  • Genetic aspects of chronic low back pain and its comorbidities.
    PhD-project; Amy Martinsen.
  • PopHead.
    A Norwegian population study on epidemiology and burden of headache disease.
    A large questionnaire study on headaches sent to approximately 30,000 inhabitants in Vestfold and Telemark.
  • Familial Hemiplegic Migraine in Norway.
    Exome sequencing of families with hereditary hemiplegic migraine.
  • GenTranslate.
    Translating molecular insights into improved treatment for headache disorders
  • The role of chiropractors - assessment and treatment of headaches in primary care.
    Mapping of chiropractors' role in the investigation and treatment of headaches within the health service.

Cooperation

The group is engaged in several projects with national and international partners.

National

UiO and OUH:

  • Dept. of Clinical Neurophysiology; Dr. Kristian Bernhard Nilsen
  • Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies; Prof. Grete Dyb

NTNU  and St. Olav’s Hospital:

  • NorHEAD: Erling A Tronvik
  • HUNT center for molecular and clinical epidemiology: Prof. Bjørn Olav Åsvold

UiB, Bergen:

  • Marte Helene Bjørk

Ahus:

  • Espen Kristoffersen and Kjersti Vetvik

International

  • Leiden University Medical Center, Departments of Human Genetics and Neurology, the Netherlands; Prof. Arn van den Maagdenberg and Gisela Terwindt
  • Karolinska Institute, Dept. of Neuroscience, Sweden; Prof. Andrea Belin
  • Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Stanley Center, USA; Prof Aarno Palotie, Prof Karestan Koenen
  • Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland; Prof. Maija Wessman, Matti Pirinen
  • Queensland University of Technology, Australia; Prof. Dale Nyholt
  • Danish Headache Center, Denmark; Thomas Folkman Hansen
  • Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Quirón Hospital, Dept of Neurology, Spain; Dr. Patricia Pozo Rosich

Publications

  • Martinsen AE, Børte S, Spildrejorde M, Brumpton BM, Heuch I, Zwart J-A, Winsvold BS. Insights into Chronic Low Back Pain Etiology: Population-based genome-wide Association Study Identifies 18 Risk Loci. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 2025;50(13):881-889.
  • Argren MB, Engstrand H, Husøy AK, Kristoffersen ES, Toft M, Pripp AH, Zwart JA, Winsvold BS. Prevalence of headache disorders in Norway: results from the population based PopHEAD study. J Headache Pain. 2025 Nov;26:271.
  • Engstrand H, Argren MB, Zwart JA, Tronvik E, Winsvold BS. The burden of high-frequency episodic migraine and chronic migraine in the population-based PopHEAD study. Cephalalgia. 2025 Dec;45:3331024251406103.