Childhood adversities experienced by working-age migraine patients.

Posted on May 13, 2007 by Maurice Preter MD
 
J Psychosom Res. 2007 Feb;62(2):139-43. Related Articles, Links
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Childhood adversities experienced by working-age migraine patients.

Sumanen M, Rantala A, Sillanmaki LH, Mattila KJ.

University of Tampere, Medical School, Tampere, Finland. markku.sumanen@kolumbus.fi <markku.sumanen@kolumbus.fi>

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this work was to study associations between childhood adversities and migraine. METHODS: This is a case-control study of individuals drawn from the Finnish Population Register comprising four age groups: 20-24, 30-34, 40-44, and 50-54 years. Altogether, 21,101 individuals responded to postal questionnaire (response rate=40%). The subjects were asked whether a doctor had told them that they have or have had migraine. They were then requested (through six questions) to think about their childhood adversities. One randomly selected age-matched and sex-matched control for comparison was selected for every patient (n=4046). RESULTS: Among migraine patients, 76.8% were women. Each of the six childhood adversities was more common among migraine patients than among controls. In conditional logistic regression analysis for matched-pairs data, long-lasting financial difficulties in the family, a family member having been seriously or chronically ill, serious conflicts in the family, and parents having divorced remained statistically significant after adjusting for education, state of health, and depression. Odds ratios varied between 1.22 and 1.29. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that social factors during childhood are associated with migraine.

PMID: 17270571 [PubMed – in process]

Posted in Aging |

Headaches amongst pool players.

Posted on May 13, 2007 by Maurice Preter MD
 
Headache. 2007 Feb;47(2):270-4. Related Articles, Links
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Headaches amongst pool players.

Seet RC, Chan YH, Lim EC.

Division of Neurology, National University Hospital, Singapore.

BACKGROUND: Pool-players’ headache is a newly described entity. We studied the prevalence and risk factors for the development of headaches amongst pool players. METHODS: We obtained demographic information, history of pre-existing headaches, frequency and duration of pool-playing, history of pre-existing headaches and their subtypes, competitive pool-playing and worsening or development of headaches amongst pool-players at 2 pool centers. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed and statistical significance was set at P < .05. RESULTS: Two hundred and three players, of mean age 22.6 (SD 7.7 years), participated in this study. Of the 21 respondents who reported headaches when playing pool, 11 (52.4%) had pre-existing headaches and 10 (47.6%) had no pre-existing headaches. Age and history of pre-existing headaches were significantly associated with worsening of headaches. CONCLUSION: Pool-players are susceptible to the development of headaches. Avoidance and reduction in the frequency of pool-playing may reduce the frequency of headaches amongst pool players.

PMID: 17300367 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

Posted in News | Tagged |

"[A]cupuncture in addition to usual care was an effective and safe treatment."

Posted on May 13, 2007 by Maurice Preter MD
 
Acupunct Med. 2006 Dec;24 Suppl:S33-39. Related Articles, Links
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Efficacy, effectiveness, safety and costs of acupuncture for chronic pain – results of a large research initiative.

Witt CM, Brinkhaus B, Reinhold T, Willich SN.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the ‘Acupuncture Model Project of the Techniker Krankenkasse’ was to determine efficacy, effectiveness, safety and cost effectiveness of acupuncture treatment in standard medical care. METHODS: We evaluated a total of 304 674 patients (34.5% men, aged 53.1+/-13.8 and 65.5% women, aged 49.5+/-14.2) who were in the care of over 10 000 physicians and received on average 10+/-3 acupuncture treatments for chronic pain (osteoarthritis of the hip or knee, low back pain, neck pain, headache) during a period of three months. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that for the diagnoses examined, acupuncture in addition to usual care was an effective and safe treatment. Whether the effects of acupuncture can be attributed primarily to specific or nonspecific mechanisms appeared to depend on the diagnosis, and should be investigated in further studies. Using acupuncture as an adjunctive treatment was more expensive than usual care alone, but was cost-effective according to internationally accepted threshold values.

PMID: 17308507 [PubMed – in process]

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Our findings indicate that the occurrence of panic attacks does not critically depend on the integrity of the amygdala.

Posted on May 13, 2007 by Maurice Preter MD
 
Arch Neurol. 2006 Dec;63(12):1798-801. Related Articles, Links
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Panic attacks in an individual with bilateral selective lesions of the amygdala.

Wiest G, Lehner-Baumgartner E, Baumgartner C.

Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. gerald.wiest@meduniwien.ac.at

OBJECTIVE: To describe the unique case of a patient with panic attacks and bilateral selective amygdala lesions due to Urbach-Wiethe disease. DESIGN: Case report. SETTING: Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, Medical University of Vienna. Patient A 38-year-old man with Urbach-Wiethe disease developed spontaneous panic attacks and depressive mood, which ceased after antidepressive treatment. INTERVENTIONS: Video electroencephalography monitoring, magnetic resonance imaging, and neuropsychological testing. RESULTS: Extended video electroencephalography monitoring excluded an epileptic etiology of the panic attacks. Results of cranial magnetic resonance imaging showed bilateral selective calcifications of the whole amygdaloid complex. Neuropsychological testing revealed selective memory impairment of autobiographic episodes with preserved memory for autobiographic facts. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the occurrence of panic attacks does not critically depend on the integrity of the amygdala. Furthermore, the neuropsychological findings in our patient suggest that the amygdala represents an essential neural substrate for the processing of episodic autobiographic memories.

Publication Types:

PMID: 17172622 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

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A randomized controlled clinical trial of psychoanalytic psychotherapy for panic disorder.

Posted on May 13, 2007 by Maurice Preter MD
 
Am J Psychiatry. 2007 Feb;164(2):265-72. Related Articles, Links
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Erratum in:

  • Am J Psychiatry. 2007 Mar;164(3):529.

A randomized controlled clinical trial of psychoanalytic psychotherapy for panic disorder.

Milrod B, Leon AC, Busch F, Rudden M, Schwalberg M, Clarkin J, Aronson A, Singer M, Turchin W, Klass ET, Graf E, Teres JJ, Shear MK.

Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 525 East 68th St., New York, NY 10021, USA. bmilrod@med.cornell.edu

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy relative to applied relaxation training, a credible psychotherapy comparison condition. Despite the widespread clinical use of psychodynamic psychotherapies, randomized controlled clinical trials evaluating such psychotherapies for axis I disorders have lagged. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first efficacy randomized controlled clinical trial of panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy, a manualized psychoanalytical psychotherapy for patients with DSM-IV panic disorder. METHOD: This was a randomized controlled clinical trial of subjects with primary DSM-IV panic disorder. Participants were recruited over 5 years in the New York City metropolitan area. Subjects were 49 adults ages 18-55 with primary DSM-IV panic disorder. All subjects received assigned treatment, panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy or applied relaxation training in twice-weekly sessions for 12 weeks. The Panic Disorder Severity Scale, rated by blinded independent evaluators, was the primary outcome measure. RESULTS: Subjects in panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy had significantly greater reduction in severity of panic symptoms. Furthermore, those receiving panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy were significantly more likely to respond at treatment termination (73% versus 39%), using the Multicenter Panic Disorder Study response criteria. The secondary outcome, change in psychosocial functioning, mirrored these results. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the small cohort size of this trial, it has demonstrated preliminary efficacy of panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy for panic disorder.

Publication Types:

PMID: 17267789 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

Posted in Uncategorized |