National Headache Foundation Headlines

My neurologist always has the latest issues of the national headache foundation issues called headlines. He usually gives me a copy when I see him. If your not familiar with NHF headlines, it is a bimonthly publication by the national headache foundation. It discuses a lot of issues surrounding headaches and the latest headache research.

For example, in the latest issue of the NHF headlines (july/august 2007) there is an article written by Drs. Seymour Diamond and George Urban of the Diamond Headache Clinic located in Chicago, Illinois. The article discuses cluster headaches.

Cluster headache is characterized by recurrent bouts of extremely painful, unilateral (one-sided) headache attacks of relatively short duration. The pain has been described as the most severe form of pain a human can endure and dubbed “killer” or “suicide” headaches by some sufferers. There are more men who suffer from these headaches; however, the gender gap is narrowing.

The article also goes into some detail on treatment options. The most common abortive treatments are oxygen, sumatriptan and dihydroergotamine. Oxygen is the standard of care for symptomatic relief. Inhaled 100% oxygen is delivered via a nonrebreathing facial mask and inhaled slowly at a flow rate of 7-8 liters per minute for 15 minutes. Further preventation medicatons are discussed.

To find the latest NHF headlines go here http://headaches.org/consumer/headlines/Issue157_cond.htm

In order to view previous issues of NHF headlines its quite simple. Just open the link above and change the number in your browser. For example, change the “157” above to something such as “155.” This will allow you to find issues that are interesting to you.

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