Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache
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Case definitions of medication-overuse headache (MOH) in population-based research have changed over time. This study aims to review MOH prevalence reports with respect to these changes, and to propose a practical case definition for future studies based on the ICHD-3 beta. ⋯ There are limits to comparing prevalence of MOH across studies and over time. The wide range of reported prevalence might not only be due to changing criteria, but also the diversity of countries now publishing data. The criterion "headache occurring on ≥15 days per month" with concurrent medication overuse can be applied in population-based studies. However, the new requirement that a respondent must have "a preexisting headache disorder" has not been previously validated. Exclusion of other headache diagnoses by expert evaluation and ancillary examinations is not feasible in large population-based studies.
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Clinical Trial
Sleep quality, arousal and pain thresholds in tension-type headache: a blinded controlled polysomnographic study.
We aimed to compare subjective and objective sleep quality in tension-type headache (TTH) patients and to evaluate the relationship between sleep quality and pain thresholds (PT) in controls and TTH patients. ⋯ We hypothesize that TTH patients need more sleep than healthy controls and might be relatively sleep deprived. Inadequate sleep may also contribute to increased pain sensitivity and headache frequency in TTH.
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The objective of this article is to determine the monthly variation of emergency department (ED) visits for pediatric headache. We hypothesized youth have increased headache-related ED visits in the months associated with school attendance. ⋯ In adolescents we found higher ED utilization in January and September, the same months associated with school return from vacation for a majority of children nationally. No significant reduction in the summer suggests that school itself is not the issue, but rather changes in daily lifestyle and transitions.