Are Patents Impeding Medical Care and Innovation? (Part 3)
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Chronic pain in adolescents is a risk factor for suicide ideation, according to new research reported in The Journal of Pain, published by American Pain Society. Researchers from the University of North Carolina, Duke University and Lehman College in New York analyzed data from the 9,970 person National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. They examined the link of chronic pain with increased risk for suicide ideation and suicide attempt, and also assessed the relationship of pain, comorbid depression and suicide ideation.
Although exercise is often prescribed as a treatment for migraine, there has not previously been sufficient scientific evidence that it really works. However, research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has now shown that exercise is just as good as drugs at preventing migraines. Doctors use a variety of different methods to prevent migraines these days: on the pharmaceutical side a drug based on the substance topiramate has proved effective, while non-medical treatments with well-documented effects include relaxation exercises.
Recurring headaches are common during the year following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), regardless of the severity of the TBI, and they tend to occur more often among females and those with a pre-TBI history of headache, according to an article in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online at the link below.
Treating chronic migraines with behavioral approaches – such as biofeedback, relaxation training, and hypnosis – can make financial sense compared to prescription-drug treatment, especially after a year or more, a new study found. Longtime behavioral therapy researcher and practitioner Dr. Donald Penzien, University of Mississippi Medical Center professor of psychiatry, coauthored the study.
How do you function when chronic pain is a part of your daily life? The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness (UCSD CFM) at UC San Diego Health System offers a novel program to help people who are dealing with chronic pain “train their brains” to lessen their experience of discomfort and, in some cases, eliminate it. Called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), this in-depth eight-week program helps participants learn to better manage their experience of pain through diverse techniques such as guided meditation, gentle yoga, and breathing exercises.
Bariatric surgery can lead to total or partial alleviation of migraines in nearly 90 percent of morbidly obese patients diagnosed with migraine headaches, according to a new study* presented here at the 28th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS). Over an average follow-up of three years after gastric bypass surgery, more than 70 percent of patients never had another migraine. More than 18 percent had partial resolution with migraine attacks dropping from five to two per month. These patients also experienced less painful migraines and took fewer medications. Eleven percent of patients had no change in migraine status.
Migraine is a neurovascular disease that affects about 15% of the western population. Compounds in foods and beverages (chocolate, wine, citrus, etc) considered as migraine triggers include tyramine, phenylethylamine, and possibly histamine and phenolic compounds. Avoiding those triggers may significantly reduce the frequency of migraines in some patients. However, only a small percentage of patients in one study became headache-free simply by excluding those foods. The publisher made the original, full-text study available for an undetermined length of time; check the end of this report for a download link.
A recently published paper highlights that while the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is more common in those with migraine than those without migraine irrespective of sex, the risk is greater in male migraineurs than female migraineurs. Study details are now available in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Headache Society.
A notable prevalence of childhood abuse – physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional – in migraine patients has been observed and documented over the last few years. In fact, it has emerged as a significant enough issue for the American Headache Society to devote an entire plenary session to it at its annual scientific conference in Washington this week.
The anatomy of migraine – a close look at the neurobiology of the disease – focuses on the thalamus, the area of the brain that is involved in sensory perception and regulation of motor functions, in one a major session of the 53rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society meeting here this week.
