Headache
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Comparative Study
Musculoskeletal abnormalities in chronic headache: a controlled comparison of headache diagnostic groups.
The presence of postural, myofascial, and mechanical abnormalities in patients with migraine, tension-type headache, or both headache diagnoses was compared to a headache-free control sample. Twenty-four control subjects were obtained from a convenience sampling and each was matched by age and sex to three patients with headache (one with migraine [with or without aura], one with tension-type headache, and one with diagnoses of both migraine and tension-type headache [combined diagnosis]) who had been previously assessed by a physical therapist at a headache clinic. Physical therapy assessment findings were compared among the four groups. ⋯ The patients were also significantly more likely to have active trigger points and trigger points in the neck than were the control subjects. There were no significant group differences identified in the mechanical measures, nor were there any significant differences among the three headache categories. Determination of the clinical significance of these musculoskeletal abnormalities in patients with headache will require the development and testing of further standardized assessments as well as physical therapy treatment programs.
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Comparative Study
The epidemiology of migraine: a retrospective study in Italian emergency departments.
This study was conducted to measure the frequency of contact with emergency departments in Italy because of migraine, and to compare the initial diagnosi s of headache with the diagnosis after application of the International Headache Society (IHS) criteria. A retrospective observational method was used, consisting of an analysis of the records of patients admitted to nine Italian emergency departments during different 4-month periods in 1994. Comparison of the initial diagnosis with the diagnosis after application of the IHS diagnostic criteria was performed. ⋯ The majority (88%) of patients assessed had not taken drugs for headache in the 48 hours before the emergency department contact, suggesting that in Italy emergency departments are used instead of a visit to the general practitioner. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were the most frequently prescribed drugs in the emergency departments for this group of diagnoses. The research revealed, on the one hand, that headache is a numerically significant phenomenon in the emergency department setting and, on the other, the need to apply prospective designs to this kind of survey.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Cerebral blood flow and CO2 reactivity in interictal migraineurs: a transcranial Doppler study.
There is still some controversy about alterations in velocity of blood flow and in cerebral vasomotor reactivity of intracranial arteries in migraineurs during the interictal phase. By means of simultaneous bilateral transcranial Doppler ultrasonography we, therefore, assessed intracranial blood flow velocities and cerebrovascular reactivity to carbon dioxide of all three basal brain arteries in 20 migraineurs during the interictal phase and 30 nonheadache-prone control subjects. ⋯ The broad overlap of cerebrovascular blood flow velocities and CO2 reactivities in patients and controls precluded identification of values diagnostic of migraine. Nevertheless, transcranial Doppler ultrasonography offers the opportunity to noninvasively monitor cerebral blood flow parameters and, therefore, represents a valuable tool for vascular research in migraine.
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The tricyclic antidepressant, amitriptyline, is an effective drug for the treatment of chronic tension-type headache and for other chronic pain syndromes, but it is also effective in the prophylaxis of an episodic type of headache such as migraine. However, its efficacy in episodic tension-type headache has not yet been clarified. ⋯ Amitriptyline significantly reduced (P < 0.05) frequency and duration of headache as well as analgesic consumption in chronic, but not in episodic, tension-type headache. Further placebo-controlled trials, possibly with higher doses of amitriptyline, might confirm if the different pattern of response to amitriptyline can be explained in terms of different involvement of central nociception and of peripheral myofascial factors in the chronic and in the episodic forms of tension-type headache.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
The long-term tolerability and efficacy of oral zolmitriptan (Zomig, 311C90) in the acute treatment of migraine. An international study. The International 311C90 Long-term Study Group.
This international open-label study evaluated the tolerability and efficacy of zolmitriptan (Zomig, 311C90), a selective 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonist, in the long-term treatment of multiple migraine attacks. Patients who had previously participated in placebo-controlled zolmitriptan studies were recruited. A total of 2058 patients treated 31,579 migraine attacks (average 15 per patient), for up to 1 year. ⋯ Patients treated recurrence of moderate or severe headache with a second zolmitriptan dose in 32% of attacks which responded to the first dose within 2 hours. Where required, a second zolmitriptan 5-mg dose for treatment of recurrence produced a headache response rate of 90% at 2 hours postdose. Thus, zolmitriptan 5 mg (plus an optional second 5-mg dose for treatment of recurrence) is well tolerated and effective in the acute treatment of multiple migraine attacks over periods up to 1 year.