New York Headache blog

Genetic analysis of 594 members of 134 families by Spanish researchers confirmed the results of a previous study that discovered a genetic abnormality on the sixth chromosome that seems to be associated with migraines. This genetic marker is present...

Women who suffer from both episodic and chronic migraines are more likely to have widespread chronic pain, which is often diagnosed as fibromyalgia. Brazilian researchers evaluated 179 women with episodic and chronic migraine. They discovered...

New risks of Prilosec (omeprazole), Nexium, and other similar drugs (so-called proton-pump inhibitors, or PPIs) are being highlighted by the FDA. They can increase the risk of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea, a serious infection. This...

A small number of my patients take triptan medications daily. Many doctors, including neurologists and headache specialists think that taking these drugs daily makes headaches worse, resulting in rebound, or medication overuse headaches (MOH)...

Migraines are often mistaken for sinus infections, and are treated with antibiotics. The reson for this confusion is that migraines can cause pain in the area of sinuses and some people will even have a clear discharge from their nose during a...

We are conducting a trial of a very novel treatment for migraine headaches. ElectroCore is a company that developed a small hand-held device which is placed at the front of the neck during a migraine and which painlessly stimulates the vagus nerve...

Botox, or onabotulinumtoxinA was recently approved by the FDA for treatment of chronic migraine based on the results of two large studies. Botox is the only prophylactic therapy specifically approved for chronic migraine. Many patients and...

Intravenous infusion of magnesium for the treatment of an acute migraine is receiving more attention and is mentioned in the recent issue of journal Headache. In the first of three articles Drs. Nancy Kelley and Deborah Tepper of the Cleveland...

Acupuncture has been widely used for the treatment of migraine headaches and it has been subjected to many clinical trials. A new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal confirms what previous research has shown – that...

How much sumatriptan (or another triptan) is too much is not clear. The initial FDA-approved daily dose of oral sumatriptan (Imitrex) for the treatment of an acute migraine was up to three 100 mg tablets. Several years later the maximum daily dose...

Swearing is a common response to pain. A study just published in The Journal of Pain examines whether swearing can actually help pain. Oxford English Dictionary defines swearing as the use of offensive or obscene language. Prior studies by the same...

Likeable patients may receive better care for their pain, according to a study by Belgian researchers. The researchers asked 40 doctors to look at photos of six different patients. Each photo was accompanied by a description such as friendly...

Pregnant women who take NSAIDs such as naproxen (Aleve), ibuprofen (Advil), diclofenac (Volaren, Cambia), celecoxib (Celebrex), and other are two and a half times more likely to have a miscarriage. This is a finding of Canadian researchers who...

The FDA approved Botox for the treatment of chronic migraine because of the two large double-blind and placebo controlled trials which involved close to 1,400 patients (in which we, at the NYHC also participated). These studies showed that Botox...

Hypertension appears to increase the risk of trigeminal neuralgia, according to a new study published in Neurology by Taiwanese researchers. They looked at 138,492 people with hypertension and compared them to 276,984 people of similar age and...

Cyclic vomiting in childhood is often a precursor of migraines in adulthood. Usually a child has attacks of vomiting with or without a headache that can occur 10 – 20 times in a 24-hour period. Most children have family history of migraines and...

High blood pressure is not a common cause of chronic headaches. The pressure has to suddenly increase (from say 100/70 to 150/90) or to be very high (like 170/110, or higher) to cause a headache. Mild hypertension is called a silent killer because...

Cluster headaches are relieved by steroid injections in the back of the head, according to a study by French doctors, published in The Lancet. 43 patients with chronic and episodic cluster headaches were recruited into this blinded study where some...

Having migraines with aura increases the risk of having increased total cholesterol and triglycerides. This was found to be the case in a population-based study of 1,155 older people (average age 69) presented by Dr. Tobias Kurth at the International...

Difficulty thinking and speaking is not unusual at the onset of a migraine attack. It is not always severe as with the reporter Serene Branson who jumbled words and appeared confused on camera. Many patients report that they have difficulty finding...

Risk of irregular heart beat, heart attacks, and death increases in people taking NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen (Aleve), diclofenac (Cambia, Voltaren, Cataflam), and celecoxib (Celebrex). The risk with these drugs in people who suffer...

Yet another study finds that exercise is as good for the prevention of migraines as drugs. The research report in journal Cephalalgia by Swedish doctors shows that 40 minutes of exercise three times a week was as effective as taking topiramate...

Aspirin is the first-line treatment for migraine and tension-type headaches regardless of headache intensity, according to a report published by three leading headache experts (from Austria, Germany, and Norway) in the journal Headache. Some...

Merck discontinued the development of telcagepant, a promising new drug which represents a new class of migraine drugs, so-called CGRP antagonists. These drugs appear to be as effective as sumatriptan (Imitrex) and other triptans in aborting...

At the NYHC, just like at all headache clinics, we see many patients with severe disability. A very interesting study just published in the journal Pain seems to tell us how to predict which of these disabled patients will respond to treatment...

Chronic cluster sufferers may benefit from sodium oxybate (Xyrem), according to a report in the leading neurology journal,Neurology. Xyrem is a drug approved for the treatment of narcolepsy but it is also being evaluated for the treatment of pain...

Botox has been shown to relieve headaches of low spinal fluid pressure in a case reported at the last annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society in Washington DC. Low spinal fluid headache usually occurs after a spinal tap...

Abdominal migraine was the subject of a study by a group of doctors from a children’s hospital in Norfolk, VA was just published in the journal Headache. The physicians examined the records of 600 children with recurrent abdominal pain. They found...

Dissection of the cervical artery is a dangerous condition which can lead to a stroke and even death, although in some it can be a benign condition with no lasting effects. A recently published study by Germain researchers in the journal Cephalalgia...

Trigeminal neuralgia is an excruciatingly painful disorder which affects about one in a thousand people. Patients describe the pain of TN as an electric shock going through the face. The pain is brief, but can be so frequent as to become incapacitating...