Headache and Migraine News

5 May 2010

Chronic Pain Study (for participants worldwide)

Would you be interested in joining an internet-based study on chronic pain and its links with social and psychological events in your life?

Terry Borsook, a PhD student in Psychology at the University of Toronto is opening the study to those who have had chronic pain for at least six months. You need to be at least 21 years old, be fluent in English, and have a typical wake-sleep cycle (you’re generally awake during the day and asleep at night).

It’s only a three week study, and includes a time of orientation and then just a few minutes a day answering a few questions. It’s internet-based, so open to anyone worldwide. Having a world-wide audience here, I wanted to make sure you knew about the study, because I’m sure many of you are eligable.

It’s a unique study, and will not only help with ongoing research into chronic pain, it could help you. You’ll have summaries of your diaries, and, if you choose, you’ll be one of the first to receive a summary of the whole study.

Terry writes:

This is the first study of its kind and will, I hope, finally shed light on the types of experiences and psychological states that tend to be associated with the improvement and worsening of pain, function and the quality of daily life.

You can sign up now by going to the home page at the Mount Sinai Hospital: Wasser Pain Management Centre Pain Study

via How to Cope with Pain

4 May 2010

Migraine and Stroke in Young Adults and more

James Discoveries & Stats 4

A new study suggests another major link between migraine and stroke.

The most common single cause of stroke in young adults is something called cervical artery dissection. This is a problem with one of two major arteries in your neck. When the lining of one of the arteries becomes torn, the blood can clot and weaken the wall of the artery or actually block it.

This problem can heal on its own, but it can be serious not only because of the symptoms it can cause but because it can cause stroke before it properly heals.

We know that there seems to be an increased risk of stroke for migraine patients. So the question is, is there a correlation between migraine and cervical artery dissection (CAD)?

According to a new study, yes.

The study out of Finland was written up last month. The researchers took 313 CAD patients and looked for lifetime prevalence of migraine. They also looked at migraine type and CAD type.

Both men and women with CAD were significantly more likely to have migraine disease, particularly migraine with aura.

And another interesting note. When CAD occurred, often patients reported an alleviation of migraine – another interesting link that needs to be investigated.

What we want to do is narrow down exactly why migraineurs are more likely to be stroke victims. It looks like this may be an important link. There could be, for example, a genetic factor that is causing both migraine and CAD.

The researchers concluded: Our observations suggest that patients with CAD are a significant link between ischemic stroke and migraine.

1 May 2010

What do you tell your Doctor?

James News 2

When it comes to your symptoms, have you told your doctor about all of them? Here are the answers our visitors gave in our most recent poll:

Poll - telling your doctor about symptoms

Surprised?

There are actually a host of reasons why you might not tell your doctor about your symptoms. For example:

You haven’t connected them with your specific disease/disorder
You think your doctor will think you’re crazy
You feel your doctor doesn’t have time, so you stick with the basics
You’re simply embarrassed.
You’ve had the symptom so long you think of it as "normal".

There may be other reasons too – what’s your reason?

Chronic headache disorders can be related to a host of symptoms – it really is hard to keep track of them all and remember to tell your doctor. There are many symptoms that have been related to migraine, as another example.

But one of those symptoms may be the missing connection that will bring you the treatment you need.

How do you keep track of symptoms? Have you discovered symptoms you weren’t even thinking of at first? What do you tell your doctor? Let’s discuss it!

30 April 2010

New Telcagepant Trial To Start This Year

James News 0

Drug company Merck is planning to start a new trial for the drug Telcagepant this year, a spokeswoman for the company says.

We last talked about this up-and-coming migraine drug back in October (see New Migraine Drug Telcagepant â€“ Not Dead Yet. It shows promise, but Merck stopped trials of Telcagepant as a preventative when some patients showed elevated levels of liver enzymes (read more here).

Merck took some time to discuss options with FDA (USA) officials. After some months, they have decided to go ahead with another safety trial in 2010, though they’re still working to design the study.

Telcagepant is one of a group of drugs called CGRP receptor antagonists. Many patients who haven’t benefited from triptan type drugs are looking forward to trying Telcagepant. However, researchers are also interested to see how Telcagepant and other CGRP receptor antagonists will work along with triptans.

Stay tuned to find out more about this upcoming study, and the results. Also, we hope to see other drugs in this class researched for migraine.

via Migraine Patients to Wait for Triptan Alternative

29 April 2010

1% Thursday: Patience

James Tips 0

He had had migraine for many years. He’d been through many treatments. He’d been to see the doctors, and the neurologists. And tried the medications.

When a close family member was diagnosed with a chronic illness, something surprising happened. He didn’t panic, didn’t sink into depression. He was actually the one calming other members of the family as the months passed. Why?

There’s one thing that you can learn after dealing with a chronic illness like migraine long-term. There aren’t necessarily quick answers.

When you’ve never had serious health problems, and then suddenly start getting migraine attacks, it’s easy to be impatient. You want to get rid of the pain NOW. And with all our modern science, and access to hundreds of years of history of headache and migraine, surely there’s something that can be done!

Well, there likely is. But it will likely take time. Sure, there’s the occasional person that tries one thing and has great results. But that’s not the case with many diseases.

When trying a new medicine or supplement for migraine, it’s common to try it for 3 months before changing the medication or even the dose. And migraine is different for everyone, as is cluster and various chronic headaches.

Expecting instant answers can make you needlessly anxious, and can lead to bad choices.

Hear me out – I’m not saying you should give up hope or become sceptical. Be determined, and be filled with hope. But when one medication isn’t a success after trying for a year, or when everything was fine, and the migraine attacks return, don’t panic. There’s still lots to be done.

This week, practise patience. Take the time to find the right doctor, the right combination of treatments, take care of yourself. Don’t give up. Be an example, for those with a chronic illness and without, that you can be hopeful, determined, and patient at the same time.

What is 1% Thursday?

Every Thursday at Headache and Migraine News (weather permitting) we’ll talk about one measurable, practical thing we can do to make our lives just 1% better. Usually it will be something very easy, sometimes it will be a challenge. Let us know if you try it, or share an idea of your own – and maybe a year from now we’ll see that things have really changed for the better!