Headache patients from across the Illinois side of the metro are seen here routinely. Dr. Padda is licensed in Illinois as well as Missouri and holds full staff privileges at Anderson Hospital in Maryville, so this has never been a licensing question — only a question of the drive.
Where the clinic actually is
Headache Express is on Woodson Road in St. Louis, Missouri, immediately south of St. Louis Lambert International Airport. From most of Madison and St. Clair counties that means crossing the river and continuing to the northwest side of the metro, rather than into downtown and out again.
For most communities the approach is I-270 west across the Chain of Rocks Bridge, then south a short distance. From the southern end of the Illinois side, I-255 north to I-270 west does the same job. Full address, parking and the map are on the contact page.
Anderson Hospital
Dr. Padda is on staff at Anderson Hospital in Maryville with full privileges, spanning pain management, addiction medicine, surgery and anesthesiology. For Illinois patients that means the physician treating your headache is embedded in your own region’s hospital system rather than being purely an out-of-state referral.
Communities we see most often
Being outside that list changes nothing about whether we can see you. Those are simply the communities the route is most familiar from. The wider service area, including the Missouri side, is set out on the locations page.
Two different reasons people drive over
The first is rescue. An attack that has run for days and is not responding to anything at home needs interrupting, and that is a same-day problem rather than a scheduling one. When a migraine will not break describes the state we mean, and same-day treatment covers how that visit works.
The second is the opposite: nothing is on fire, but the pattern has been running for years and nobody has established what it is. That visit is diagnostic, unhurried, and it is the one that changes the next decade rather than the next afternoon.
They need different appointments, and it is worth saying which you want when you call. Driving forty minutes for a rescue visit and being given a preventive workup is a wasted day, and so is the reverse.
Which headaches need an emergency room instead?
Some headaches are emergencies, and the honest thing for a headache clinic to publish is the list. A headache that reaches maximum intensity within a minute, one with fever and a stiff neck, one with new weakness, confusion or a change in vision, a first severe headache after fifty, or any sudden change in a pattern held for years — those go to an emergency department, not to us.
Headache red flags sets the list out properly, and when a headache needs a scan covers the narrower question of imaging, which is ordered less often than patients expect and more usefully when it is.
The rest of the time, imaging is not what settles a headache diagnosis. History and examination are, and a normal scan is frequently taken as an answer when it is only the exclusion of one.
Does Illinois insurance cover a Missouri headache clinic?
Most major commercial plans and Medicare travel across the river without difficulty, and a Missouri clinic is already in network for a great many Illinois patients. Medicare in particular is federal and does not care which side of the river you live on.
The two worth checking before you drive are Illinois managed Medicaid, which has narrow out-of-state provisions, and Illinois-specific HMO products built around Illinois hospital systems. Benefits are verified before scheduling rather than discovered at the front desk, and an authorization is not the same thing as a promise of payment — we say which is which as soon as we know.
Is the drive from Illinois worth it?
For a first assessment, usually yes, because the point of the visit is to settle what is actually driving the headaches. For repeat treatment it depends on what you need and how often. That is a fair question to put to us directly rather than guess at — call or text and we will give you a straight answer, including if the answer is that something closer to home would serve you better.
What happens at the first headache visit?
An hour, mostly spent talking. The history is the diagnostic instrument in headache medicine and there is no substitute for it: when it started, what it feels like, where exactly, how long an attack runs, what you do during one, what you have taken and what happened.
Then examination — the neck, the nerve exit points at the back of the head, the jaw, the temporal and supraorbital regions — because a structure that reproduces your pain when pressed is worth more than another scan.
You leave with a working diagnosis or an explicit list of what still has to be separated, and a plan that says what happens next and when it will be judged. If a diagnostic block is the fastest way to settle the question, that is usually offered the same day rather than at a third appointment.
What we are not the right place for
We are not an emergency service. If a headache is sudden, worst-ever, or accompanied by fever, confusion, weakness or visual loss, the correct destination is an emergency department and nothing on this site should delay that.
We are also not a route to ongoing opioid prescribing. Opioids are poor headache drugs, they drive medication overuse faster than almost anything else, and a practice that hands them out for migraine is making the next year worse to make this afternoon easier. If that is what is wanted, we are the wrong clinic and we say so on the page rather than at the desk.
What we are useful for is a headache nobody has properly named, one that has stopped responding, or one where the acute medication has quietly become part of the problem.
Two towns further out on the Illinois side have their own pages too: headache treatment for Glen Carbon and headache treatment for Troy.
Frequently asked questions
Can Dr. Padda treat Illinois patients?
Yes. Dr. Padda is licensed in Illinois as well as Missouri, and he holds full staff privileges at Anderson Hospital in Maryville, spanning pain management, addiction medicine, surgery and anesthesiology. Patients from Belleville, Edwardsville, Alton, Collinsville, Maryville and the rest of the Illinois side are seen here routinely, and living outside those towns changes nothing about whether we can see you.
How do I get to Headache Express from Illinois?
The clinic is just south of St. Louis Lambert International Airport, on the northwest side of the metro, so there is no need to go through downtown. From most Illinois communities, take I-270 west across the Chain of Rocks Bridge, then head south a short distance. From the southern end of the Illinois side, take I-255 north to I-270 west. The full address and map are on the contact page.
Should I ask for a rescue visit or a diagnostic visit?
Say which one you need when you call. A rescue visit is for an attack that has run for days and is not responding to anything at home, which is a same-day problem. A diagnostic visit is for a pattern that has run for years without anyone establishing what it is. The two need different appointments, and booking the wrong one wastes the drive.
Will Headache Express prescribe opioids for my migraines?
Not on an ongoing basis. Opioids are poor headache drugs, and they drive medication overuse faster than almost anything else. What we are useful for is a headache nobody has properly named, one that has stopped responding, or one where the acute medication has quietly become part of the problem.