Headache
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Butalbital is a barbiturate contained in combination products with caffeine and an analgesic prescribed for the treatment of migraine and tension-type headaches. Controversy exists as to whether butalbital should continue to be prescribed in the United States because of the potential for abuse, overuse headache, and withdrawal syndromes. Butalbital crosses the placenta but there is limited information about potential teratogenicity. ⋯ We observed relationships between maternal periconceptional butalbital use and certain congenital heart defects. These associations have not been reported before, and some may be spurious. Butalbital use was rare and despite the large size of the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, the number of exposed case and control infants was small. However, if confirmed in additional studies, our findings will be useful in weighing the risks and benefits of butalbital for the treatment of migraine and tension-type headaches.
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Observational Study
Impact of NSAID and Triptan use on developing chronic migraine: results from the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention (AMPP) study.
To assess the influence of triptan or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use on the likelihood of developing chronic migraine (CM) among persons with episodic migraine (EM). ⋯ Triptan use in EM is associated with an increased risk of CM onset that increases with days of medication use. For NSAIDs, effects depend on headache days per month. NSAIDs are protective in individuals with less than 10 headache days per month but associated with increased risk with 10 or more headache days per month. Combining a triptan and NSAID was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk of CM onset, whereas increased risk of CM onset was significantly associated with triptan monotherapy.
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Comparative Study
Headache diagnoses among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans enrolled in VA: a gender comparison.
To examine the prevalence and correlates of headache diagnoses, by gender, among Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans who use Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care. ⋯ Results of this study have implications for the delivery of post-deployment health services to Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans. Migraine and other headache diagnoses are common among Veterans, particularly women, and tend to occur in combination with other post-deployment health conditions for which patients are being treated.
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Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified various migraine susceptibility variants. We aim to replicate 5 GWAS-associated polymorphisms (rs1835740, LRP1 rs11172113, TRPM8 rs10166942, PRDM16 rs2651899, and TGFBR2 rs7640453) in the North Indian population. Furthermore, we checked the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) with the selected variants. We also undertook to predict the functional effect (in silico) of the variants. ⋯ We report significant influence of rs1835740, LRP1 rs11172113 and PRDM16 rs2651899 polymorphisms on migraine susceptibility in the North Indian population. Finally, we present the first replication study of GWAS-associated polymorphisms in a population other than European.