New York Headache blog

Abuse of prescription narcotic (opioid) drugs is growing at an alarming rate and they are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths due to overdose every year. While all such drugs can cause addiction, there appears to be a difference among...

Fear and avoidance of activity may play a role in fostering disability in whiplash-associated disorders, according to a new study by University of Washington researchers published in the latest issue of journal Pain. This study examined the...

Preventive drugs for migraine headaches help less than half of the patients they are given to. There is no significant difference in effectiveness in these drugs. They reduce frequency of attacks by 50 percent, according to a review published...

It is a well established fact that migraine sufferers are 2-3 times more likely to develop anxiety and depression. The reverse is also true: if you suffer from anxiety and depression, you are 2-3 times more likely to develop migraine headaches...

Botox seems to help neck and upper back muscle pains, according to a recent study by UCLA doctors. We know that one of the actions of Botox is to relax muscles and it has been effective for the treatment of sciatic pain, according to a previous...

A new treatment for pseudotumour cerebri was reported by a team of interventional neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons. Pseudotumour cerebri is a rare condition, which manifests itself by increased pressure in the head, leading to severe headaches...

Approval of the inhaled dihydroergotamine or DHE to be sold under the name of Levadex has been delayed again by the FDA. We expected approval last year because the FDA did consider the product to be safe and effective, but they were not happy...

Food sensitivities have been always suspected to be a trigger for migraine headaches. A group of Turkish neurologists published a study in the journal Headache in which they gave an elimination diet to 21 migraine sufferers who also had irritable...

The importance of context: When relative relief renders pain pleasant, is the title of an article recently published in the leading international medical journal, Pain. British and Norwegian researchers examined how context can influence the experience...

It is not surprising that persistent pain can cause depression, but a study just published in The Journal of Pain suggests a possible mechanism and more importantly a possible treatment. Australian doctors examined 669 patients who were over...

Melatonin does seem to help prevent migraine headaches according to a new study by Brazilian researchers just presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. In my previous post over two years ago I wrote...

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) seems to be effective for the treatment of migraine headaches. In my post over a year ago I mentioned our study of a device that stimulates vagus nerve with an external portable device. The results of this...

The release of a generic substitute of the branded drug Imitrex (sumatriptan) has dramatically reduced the cost and improved the access to this uniquely effective migraine drug. The generic sumatriptan was released four years ago and now the...

Pain is defined as a negative emotional experience that is affected by a variety of psychological factors. Some of the pain brain mechanisms involve endorphins (endogenous opioids) and cannabinoids (substances related to marijuana – yes, we have...

German researchers examined the possible connection between headaches and low back pain in a study published in the recent issue of journal Pain. They questioned 5605 headache sufferers about the frequency and type of their headaches and about...

Expectation of relief can enhance pain relief, according to a new study published in The Journal of Pain by Canadian researchers. This is not a new discovery, but provides additional confirmation of this important clinical observation. The current...

Many people report that sex relieve their migraine and tension-type headaches. We also know that sexual activity can trigger severe headaches. A group of German researchers conducted an observational study among patients of a headache clinic...

Optimists appear to tolerate pain better than pessimists, an old discovery that is supported by a new study published in The Journal of Pain. The study by researchers at the Universities of Florida and Alabama involved 140 older individuals...

Cambia (diclofenac) is a prescription anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) which is approved by the FDA for the treatment of migraine headaches. It is sold as a licorice-tasting powder that has to be dissolved in water before being ingested. This drug...

Daily and prolonged intake of high doses of triptan medications (sumatriptan, or Imitrex, rizatriptan, or Maxalt, eletriptan, or Relpax and 4 others) has been shown to be safe in at least three clinical reports. I also have a few patients who...

A recently published study by neurologists at the Military Medical Center in San Antonio led by Dr. Grogan tried to find predictors of response to botulinum toxin injections in chronic migraine sufferers. They looked at the records of 128 patients...

Tension and migraine headaches are the 2nd and 3rd most common medical problem in the world after dental caries (cavities), according to a new study conducted by the World Health Organization (The Global Burden of Disease Survey 2010) and reported...

A typical visual aura which precedes the headache in about 20% of migraine sufferers usually lasts 20 to 60 minutes. A small number of patients suffer prolonged auras, which can last for hours. While we have many medications to treat the pain...

I failed to mention in my two previous posts that there is a difference in the type of electrical current used in transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and transcranial direct current stimulation. The former uses alternating current...

An article in today’s New York Times reported on the efficacy of electrical brain stimulation for the treatment of depression. It described a study published last week in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, in which a commonly used antidepressant...

Electrical stimulation of the nervous system is widely used for a variety of conditions and in a variety of ways. The nervous system can be electrically stimulated at the level of the brain, by implanting electrodes into the brain, at the level...

Sudden hearing loss is a rare condition, but it is more common in people who suffer from migraine headaches, according to just published study by Taiwanese researchers. Taiwan, just like many Scandinavian countries has national health insurance...

Many migraine sufferers report that flickering lights and vigorous exercise trigger their migraine attacks. Danish researchers published a study in the journal Neurology , in which they recruited 27 patients who suffered from migraines with aura...

Botox (anabotulinumtoxinA) is the only treatment approved by the FDA for the treatment of chronic migraine headaches. The FDA based its approval on the results of two clinical trials with 700 patients in each (I participated in one of them). In these...

Migraine surgery continues to be promoted by an ever increasing number of plastic surgeons. In my previous post in 2007 I mentioned the reasons to avoid such surgery and five years later all those reasons remain. Some of the leading objections...