Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Space headache on Earth: head-down-tilted bed rest studies simulating outer-space microgravity.
Headache is a common symptom during space travel, both isolated and as part of space motion syndrome. Head-down-tilted bed rest (HDTBR) studies are used to simulate outer space microgravity on Earth, and allow countermeasure interventions such as artificial gravity and training protocols, aimed at restoring microgravity-induced physiological changes. ⋯ Simulated microgravity during HDTBR induces headache episodes, mostly on the first day. Countermeasures are useful in reducing headache severity and associated symptoms. Reversible, microgravity-induced cephalic fluid shift may cause headache, also on Earth. HDTBR can be used to study space headache on Earth.
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Most studies assessing the association between migraine and obesity have shown conflicting results. We aimed to evaluate the association between obesity and migraine in ELSA-Brasil, a cohort study of 15,105 individuals aged 35-74 years. ⋯ In our large sample of individuals aged 35 years or older, obesity, but not AbO, was associated with daily migraine. AbO influenced the association between BMI and daily migraine in migraineurs aged 35-49 years.
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Published data from 1998 revealed that most patients treated for migraine in an emergency department received opioids. Over the intervening years, a large body of evidence has emerged demonstrating the efficacy and safety of non-opioid alternatives. Expert opinion during these years has cautioned against use of opioids for migraine. Our objectives were to compare current frequency of use of various medications for acute migraine in US emergency departments with use of these same medications in 1998 and to identify factors independently associated with opioid use. ⋯ In spite of recommendations to the contrary, opioids are still used in more than half of all emergency department visits for migraine. Though use of meperidine has decreased markedly between 1998 and 2010, it has largely been replaced by hydromorphone. Opioid use in migraine visits is independently associated with prior visits to the same emergency department in the previous 12 months.
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Cluster headache is an excruciating unilateral headache with autonomic symptoms whose periodic nocturnal activity, which interrupts sleep, has been attributed to a hypothalamic generator. ⋯ This case documents two new aspects of cluster headache. It suggests that repeated nocturnal awakenings can be a warning sign of an impending cluster period, a finding that may have therapeutic implications, and also that hypothalamic activation may begin several days before trigemino-autonomic symptoms, thus behaving as a true bout generator.
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The combination of vertigo, dizziness and balance disturbance with migraine is called vestibular migraine. Although it is estimated that up to 1% of the population suffers from this disease, it is still widely unknown and often underdiagnosed. Recently, the International Headache Society and the Báràny Society published the first joint document with mutually accepted diagnostic criteria for vestibular migraine. ⋯ As randomized controlled treatment trials are still missing in vestibular migraine, the therapeutic recommendations for vestibular migraine are currently based on the guidelines of migraine.