A 14-year-old Nigerian female with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (Pseudotumor cerebri or benign intracranial hypertension).
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A 14-year-old secondary school girl presented with acute onset severe generalized headache associated with vomiting and diplopia. These followed an initial fever, which responded to chloroquine. She had been on peflacine for a left knee septic arthritis until onset of her symptoms. The main findings on physical examination were mild obesity, left abducent nerve palsy, bilateral papilledema and evidence of resolving arthritis of her left knee. The results of her investigations, including a brain CT scan were within normal limits. A diagnosis of IIH was made. She responded satisfactorily to oral acetazolamide with complete resolution of her symptoms and signs within 12 days of hospitalization and 2 weeks of follow-up. (+info)
Nontraumatic headache in the Emergency Department: a survey in the province of Trieste.
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The objective was to study the demographics, diagnostic procedures and therapies employed in order to provide guidelines to Emergency Department (ED) physicians. A six-month retrospective analysis of the records of all patients presenting with nontraumatic headache (NTH) to the EDs of the Province of Trieste was performed. Of 38,238 patients screened, 300 (0.8%) presented with NTH and 49.7% were referred to specialists. Patients were classified as having secondary headache (41.3%), primary headache (24.3%) and headache with no obvious source (NOS) (34.4%). One hundred and seventy patients were treated with mono- or polytherapy. Of 50 patients with migraine, 36 were treated with NSAIDs and 4 with triptans. 68.4% of patients were referred to a general practitioner and 31.6% were admitted. The frequency of NTH was lower than in other studies. NOS headache was frequent. Only 10% of migraineurs received triptans. Diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for ED physicians are needed. (+info)
The prevalence of headache in Behcet's syndrome.
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OBJECTIVES: Behcet's syndrome is an uncommon systemic disorder that involves the nervous system in 5% of cases. Headache may arise in conjunction with such complications but also appears to occur independently. We sought to define the prevalence of headache in an unselected group of patients with Behcet's syndrome, to characterize the headache syndromes and to identify what treatments are being used. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to an unselected group of patients through their support group newsletter. RESULTS: The results showed a prevalence of recurrent headache in 82.5% of responders; the majority exhibited symptoms that fulfilled the International Headache Society criteria for migraine, with a higher than normal prevalence of visual or sensory aura of 52%. Using the Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) score for disability in migraine, 62% of responders showed moderate or severe disability. Headache treatment was poor, the majority of sufferers resorting to over-the-counter remedies; preventative treatments had rarely been prescribed. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent headache is very common in Behcet's syndrome, is poorly treated and is associated with disablement. (+info)
Topo-kinesthetic memory in chronic headaches. A new test for chronic patients: preliminary report.
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The objective of this study was to establish if chronic headaches with medication overuse can modify a topo-kinesthetic memory test. Nineteen patients with medication overuse headache (MOH), 13 patients with chronic tension-type headache (CTTH) without medication use and a group of "normal" subjects underwent a topo-kinesthetic memory test at T0 and after one month (T1); a control group of healthy volunteers was also tested to establish the baseline in our experimental setting. After one month, in the MOH patients there was a reduction of medication overuse from 3.3+/-2.65 to 1.1+/-2.23 (p<0.01), but no significant reduction in headache frequency and severity index, quality of life, anxiety and depression scores. The navigation time at T0 was 14.3+/-4.97, 27.9+/-10.12, 34.3+/-15.38 and 7.5+/-2.33, 10.1+/-2.95, 11.4+/-3.21 for control, MOH and CTTH with closed and open eyes, respectively (p<0.02). At T1, the MOH patients reached performances with open eyes similar to the healthy controls, while with closed eyes the navigation test reached times similar to those of CTTH patients. The topo-kinesthetic memory test seems both able to discriminate MOH and CTTH from healthy volunteers and to be related to pain scores but is not influenced by the use of drugs. (+info)
Acute treatment of headache.
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Effective acute treatment of headache begins with making an accurate diagnosis and ruling out secondary causes of headache. Once a primary headache is diagnosed, it is important to choose the right combination of behavioural therapy and acute care (abortive and symptomatic) therapy for each patient. Some patients may need preventive medication on a daily basis. If patients overuse acute medications and develop medication overuse headache (previously called analgesic rebound headache), they often seek medical attention due to the chronicity and/or intensity of their pain and resultant disability. For acute care of migraine, physicians should choose a triptan they know and expect to work. They should prescribe the dose and route of administration that will provide the most rapid and complete response to all the associated symptoms of migraine, in addition to the pain. The effectiveness of the 7 available triptans in early, double-blind, controlled trials is more similar than different. How and when to give them will be discussed. Treatment of cluster headache will be presented briefly. (+info)
The Acute Hangover Scale: A new measure of immediate hangover symptoms.
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PURPOSE: No psychometrically established measure of acute hangover symptoms is published and available to use in experimental investigations. The present investigation combined data across three studies of residual alcohol effects to establish the properties of a new Acute Hangover Scale (AHS) based on symptoms supported in previous lab studies. METHODS: Professional mariners from a Swedish maritime academy (n=54) and young adult students/recent graduates of urban U.S. universities (n=135) participated in one of three within-subjects' studies of residual effects of heavy drinking (M=0.114 g% breath alcohol concentration [BrAC]). All drank placebo one evening and alcoholic drinks another evening followed by an 8-h sleep period before completing the AHS 10-20 min after awakening. RESULTS: The AHS showed excellent internal consistency reliability the morning after alcohol. The AHS mean score and each item were significantly affected by beverage but not demographics or typical drinking, supporting validity. CONCLUSIONS: The AHS is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing acute hangover symptoms in experimental investigations of residual alcohol effects. (+info)
Endocannabinoids in chronic migraine: CSF findings suggest a system failure.
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Based on experimental evidence of the antinociceptive action of endocannabinoids and their role in the modulation of trigeminovascular system activation, we hypothesized that the endocannabinoid system may be dysfunctional in chronic migraine (CM). We examined whether the concentrations of N-arachidonoylethanolamide (anandamide, AEA), palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) in the CSF of patients with CM and with probable CM and probable analgesic-overuse headache (PCM+PAOH) are altered compared with control subjects. The above endocannabinoids were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and quantified by isotope dilution gas-chromatography/mass-spectrometry. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) levels were also determined by RIA method and the end products of nitric oxide (NO), the nitrites, by HPLC. CSF concentrations of AEA were significantly lower and those of PEA slightly but significantly higher both in patients with CM and PCM+PAOH than in nonmigraineur controls (p<0.01 and p<0.02, respectively). A negative correlation was found between AEA and CGRP levels in CM and PCM+PAOH patients (r=0.59, p<0.01 and r=-0.65, p<0.007; respectively). A similar trend was observed between this endocannabinoid and nitrite levels. Reduced levels of AEA in the CSF of CM and PCM+PAOH patients may reflect an impairment of the endocannabinoid system in these patients, which may contribute to chronic head pain and seem to be related to increased CGRP and NO production. These findings support the potential role of the cannabinoid (CB)1 receptor as a possible therapeutic target in CM. (+info)
The incidence and severity of hangover the morning after moderate alcohol intoxication.
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