Headache
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Comparative Study
Quantitative assessment of the tension-type headache and migraine severity continuum.
Two quantitative measures for Waters' tension-type headache and migraine severity continuum are proposed. To ensure face validity, symptoms and precipitants of this disorder were complied from the literature as a basis for the Auckland Migraine and Headache Inventory. This inventory was completed by 84 participants (mean age +/- SD, 26.0 +/- 9.7 years; range, 18 to 59 years) who complied with the criteria of the International Headache Society for migraine or tension-type headache. ⋯ These scores yielded significant internal reliability (r = .77 and .84), test-retest reliability (r = .86 and .74), and concurrent validity (r = .57) coefficients. The data, therefore, support the notion that the migraine headache index and the number of precipitants are reliable and valid indices of tension-type headache and migraine severity, suitable for participant selection and assessment of treatment. This study offers support for Waters' suggestion that tension-type headache and migraine are extremes of a severity continuum.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Naratriptan is effective and well tolerated in the acute treatment of migraine. Results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study. Naratriptan S2WA3001 Study Group.
To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of naratriptan, a novel 5-HT1 agonist, in the acute treatment of migraine. ⋯ Naratriptan is effective and well tolerated for the acute treatment of migraine. The 2.5-mg dose appears to offer the optimum ratio of efficacy to tolerability.
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One hundred consecutive patients, the majority suffering from bilateral chronic tension-type headache, investigated with lumbar puncture, were studied as to age, sex, body mass index, diagnosis, lumbar cerebrospinal fluid pressure, and signs of inflammation in the serum in relation to postlumbar puncture headache. Patients younger than 40 years of age were significantly more prone to develop postlumbar puncture headache than patients older than 40 years of age (P = 0.01). Sex, body mass index, cerebrospinal fluid pressure, and signs of inflammation in the serum were not related to the frequency of postlumbar puncture headache in the present study. ⋯ In a regression analysis with age, sex, and chronic tension-type headaches, only bilateral headache contributed significantly to the prediction of postlumbar puncture headache (P < 0.01). Age did not contribute apart from the common variance with chronic tension-type headache/no chronic tension-type headache. The results may indicate that postlumbar puncture headache and chronic tension-type headache have etiologic mechanisms in common, mechanisms presumably localized intracranially rather than extracranially.