Migraine

Better understanding of migraine causes and related issues could result in enhanced patient care and prevention, but clinicians face some serious challenges-here are 5.

Researchers are finding some useful answers about migraine treatment and prevention.

When is a headache more than just a headache? How best to treat a corneal ulcer? When can a patient with asthma safely undergo elective surgery? Here: tips to help you prepare for your recertification exam-and to help you in your daily practice.

In the news: respiratory disease underdiagnosed, Alzheimer biomarkers, Crohn disease microbiome, migraine device, sleep apnea and diabetes.

In the news: stroke prevention, heart disease and women, migraine and depression, cholinesterase inhibitors and dementia, multivitamins and cataract risk.

Chronic pain affects more Americans than diabetes mellitus, heart disease, and cancer combined. Here are some facts and figures about pain for you to consider.

Neurological disorders have been considered a significant threat to public health for some time. Take a look at these facts and figures.

The current study may help create new pathways for better understanding and developing more effective and more specific medications.

Most patients have a sophisticated idea of what causes their headaches, but the chances of this information being wrong are higher than desirable unless the patient formally experimented with triggers.

This condition is a more important risk factor than previously thought and should not be taken lightly.

Stroke survival and thoughts of suicide; PCP shortage; pediatric headache treatments; antidepressants and prolonged QT interval; calcium supplements, men, and CVD.

Topiramate and trazadone showed only limited efficacy in pediatric headache. For flunarizine, pizotifen, propranolol, and valproate, no evidence was found to support their use.

Stigma correlated most strongly with inability to work and was greater for chronic migraine than for epilepsy or episodic migraine.

PFO can be detected in 10% to 15% of the population by transthoracic echocardiogram. Autopsy studies show a prevalence of PFO of approximately 26%.

FDA Approves New Flu Vaccine: Drug Trio Increases Kidney Risk; Spotting Problem Drinkers; Migraines and Blood Clots; New Class of Diabetes Drug

Medication is seldom necessary. Education is the key element of therapy. An explanation of the process and a discussion of possible triggers-lack of sleep, stress, missed meals etc-is the most key intervention.

School performance is more likely to be below average in children who have migraine than in those who do not have headaches.

Several classes of drugs seem to have positive effects for patients with GI disorders--including NSAIDs, anticonvulsants, alpha-adrenergic agents, neuromuscular agents, and antidepressants. Details here.

Patients with multiple sclerosis are more than twice as likely to report migraines as controls, according to a recent meta-analysis.

Medication overuse headache can result from overuse of any drug to abort acute headache. Discontinuation is the only effective treatment and is difficult.

Ulcerative colitis has a greater impact on patients’ quality of life than physicians perceive, and the disease affects their lives even more than the impact of other chronic conditions, according to paired surveys of doctors and patients.

We have long known that many adolescents have chronic pain. A new study highlights just how widespread it is-and the significant impact it can have.

Sixteen-year-old African American boy with progressive loss of vision in the left eye over 2 weeks. He also had pain around the left orbit with some radiation to the temple. His mother reported that one side of his face appeared to be more flushed when he exerted himself; he had not seen a physician for this problem. He had no seizures or hemiparesis and was cognitively intact.

For more than a week, a 74-year-old man has had diminished vision in his left eye. He reports that the problem started acutely with a sensation of flashing lights in the affected eye, followed by the presence of dark floaters for several days.

What underlying disorders should primary care clinicians be alert for in patients with migraine?

How will your practice manage the coming “tsunami” of older patients as the baby boomers enter their golden years?

I have found that most of my patients with celiac disease actually have to convince their own physicians that they have the disorder.

Migraine and chronic daily headache may be risk factors for the development of complex regional pain syndrome, according to the results of a study led by B. Lee Peterlin, DO, assistant professor of neurology, Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

The risk of ischemic stroke may be twice as high in patients who experience migraine with aura as in those who have migraine without aura, according to results of a systematic review and meta-analysis.