Headaches

PITTSBURGH, June 21 — High school and college athletes with migraine headache characteristics after a concussion may have increased neurocognitive impairment, suggests a University of Pittsburgh Sports Medicine Concussion Program study published in the May issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery. The study results speak to the need for extreme caution in clinical evaluation and return-to-play decisions, say the authors.In the study, athletes who had characteristics of post-traumatic migraine (PTM) headache following a concussion also showed increased neurocognitive function impairment and related symptoms compared to concussed athletes with no post-injury headache or non-migraine headache.”The findings of our study strongly support the need for clinicians to exercise increased vigilance in making decisions about managing a concussed athlete with PTM and extreme caution as to when that athlete should be allowed to return to play,” said the study’s lead author, Jason Mihalik, … Read more

Patients suffering from chronic migraine headaches who have found no relief through the use of medication may find hope through occipital nerve stimulation (ONS). At the 58th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, April 1-8, 2006, in San Diego, research physicians from Mayo Clinic in Arizona presented findings of their clinical studies that show ONS as a safe, effective treatment for chronic headache. ONS treatment involves implanting a neurostimulator under the skin at the base of the head. The neurostimulator delivers electrical impulses near the occipital nerves via insulated lead wires tunneled under the skin. More than 32 million Americans, 70 percent of whom are women, suffer from migraines and lose about 157 million workdays each year, according to the National Headache Foundation. Many sufferers progress to a chronic condition, experiencing headaches more than 15 days per month. … Read more

When Michael Oshinsky, Ph.D., gives his rats a headache, he has good reason. The animals are helping Dr. Oshinsky, assistant professor of neurology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, study how migraine treatments work. In recent experiments, the animals provided evidence showing that DHE, a standard drug currently used to treat acute migraine pain can also work against the onset of a phenomenon called “central sensitization,” or “allodynia,” which involves, as most migraine sufferers know, a heightened sensitivity to touch.For many migraine sufferers, it hurts to touch their face, brush their hair, even take a shower during a migraine attack. Triptans, another class of drugs commonly used to treat migraines, can also treat acute headache pain, but has a narrow window in which it works against allodynia. Dr. Oshinsky looked at DHE’s effectiveness on halting or … Read more

An electronic device designed to “zap” away migraine pain before it starts may be the next form of relief for millions of people who suffer from the debilitating disease. Results of a study found that the experimental device appears to be effective in eliminating the headache when administered during the onset of the migraine. The device, called TMS, interrupts the aura phase of the migraine, often described as electrical storms in the brain, before they lead to headaches. Auras are neural disturbances that signal the onset of migraine headaches. People who suffer from migraine headaches often describe “seeing” showers of shooting stars, zigzagging lines and flashing lights, and experiencing loss of vision, weakness, tingling or confusion. What typically follows these initial symptoms is intense throbbing head pain, nausea and vomiting. Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist at OSU Medical Center who presented … Read more

A nasal spray is safe and effective at rapidly treating cluster headaches, which are considered to be the most painful kind of headache with few treatment options, according to a recent study. The double-blind trial involved 52 people with cluster headache who used five or 10 milligrams of zolmitriptan nasal spray or placebo to treat 151 separate cluster headache attacks. The study found 63 percent of people treated with the drug at the higher dose reported headache relief at 30 minutes, compared to 50 percent of people taking the lower dose of zolmitriptan nasal spray and 30 percent in the placebo group.”This is a significant finding and the main endpoint of our study,” said study author Alan M. Rapoport, MD, with The New England Center for Headache in Stamford, CT, and Clinical Professor of Neurology at The David Geffen School … Read more