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This article outlines key features of diagnosis and treatment of migraine in children and adolescents. It emphasizes techniques that can be used by clinicians to optimize history taking in this population, as well as recognition of episodic conditions that may be associated with migraine and present in childhood. Acute treatment strategies include use of over-the-counter analgesics and triptan medications that have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in children and adolescents. Preventive treatment approach includes lifestyle modifications, behavioral strategies, and consideration of preventive medications with the lowest side effect profiles.
Learn More >Patients with migraine frequently report ocular or visual symptoms including aura, photophobia, and eye pain. Using validated instruments, our group previously reported that due to these symptoms, patients have marked reductions in visual quality of life. In chronic migraine, these reductions can be as substantial as those reported for other neuro-ophthalmic diseases such as multiple sclerosis with optic neuritis and idiopathic intracranial hypertension. Because the instruments take several different dimensions into account, we were unable to determine which ocular symptom(s) contributed to reduced visual quality of life. The purpose of this investigation was to attempt to determine which ocular symptom(s) were driving the observed reduction in visual quality of life.
Learn More >This study sought to examine the association between early life stressors and adolescent headache in the Canadian population, and the potential mediating influence of symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Learn More >Biobehavioral interventions for migraine incorporate both physiologic and psychological factors. This article details treatments for migraine management and prevention, ranging from traditional to newly emerging interventions. Similarly, this article reviews key person-related factors that may affect migraine prevalence and management. Aspects related to patient-physician relationships and communication are also reviewed. Research involving childhood and adolescent migraine is reviewed, and special considerations regarding this population are summarized. Clinical trials and other studies have provided evidence that these behavioral interventions, when combined with pharmacotherapy, show a marked improvement in primary treatment outcomes, such as a decrease in headache frequency and duration.
Learn More >Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) has emerged as an important signaling peptide in migraine pathogenesis. Recently, we have shown that the less-abundant PACAP isoform, PACAP27, induced migraine and headache in patients equipotently to PACAP38. The present study examined the effect of PACAP27 on cerebral hemodynamics in healthy volunteers using high resolution magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). Eighteen healthy volunteers received infusion of PACAP27 (10 pmol/kg/min) or placebo over 20 min and were scanned repeatedly in fixed intervals for 5 hours in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. The circumference of extra-intracerebral arteries was measured and compared with PACAP38 data. We found significant dilation of middle meningeal artery (MMA) (p = 0.019), superficial temporal artery (p = 0.001) and external carotid artery (p = 0.039) after PACAP27 infusion compared to placebo. Whereas the middle cerebral artery (MCA) (p = 0.011) and internal carotid artery (ICA) (p = 0.015, p = 0.019) were constricted. No effects on basilar artery (p = 0.708) and cavernous portion of ICA were found. Post hoc analyses revealed significant larger area under the curve for MMA after PACAP38 compared to PACAP27 (p = 0.033). We also found that PACAP27 induced headache in nine out of twelve (75%) volunteers and one (17%) after placebo. In conclusion, PACAP27 induced headache and dilated extracerebral arteries (>5 h) and slightly constricted MCA in healthy volunteers. Post hoc analysis of PACAP38 data compared with PACAP27 showed that PACAP isoforms dilates MMA with significantly different magnitude.
Learn More >Episodic migraine is a debilitating condition. Preventive therapy is used to reduce frequency, duration, or severity of attacks. This review discusses principles of preventive treatment with a focus on preventive treatment options for people with episodic migraine. Specifically discussed is evidence and use of new migraine-specific treatment options for episodic migraine, such as calcitonin gene-related peptide monoclonal antibodies, a noninvasive transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation device, and a single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulator device. Also discussed are evidence-based updates from the 2012 American Academy of Neurology and the American Headache Society guidelines regarding major medication classes recommended for preventive episodic migraine treatment.
Learn More >In 2018, three calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) pathway monoclonal antibodies, erenumab, fremanezumab and galcanezumab, were approved in various parts of the world, including Europe and the US, and another, eptinezumab, is pending, for the prevention of migraine. In this article, episodic migraine treatment is reviewed, although these medicines are approved and are just as effective for chronic migraine. These new medicines usher a new phase in the preventive management of migraine with migraine-specific treatments. Data from phase III trials of CGRP pathway monoclonal antibodies have shown they are efficacious, with adverse effect rates comparable to placebo. The combination of clear efficacy and excellent tolerability will be welcome in an area where poor adherence to current preventives is common. Rimegepant, ubrogepant and lasmiditan are migraine-specific acute therapies yet to be approved by regulators. Phase III data for the respective CGRP receptor antagonists, the gepants, and the serotonin 5-HT receptor agonist, the ditan, have been positive and free of cardiovascular adverse effects. These medicines are not vasoconstrictors. When approved, they could meet the acute therapy demand of patients with cardiovascular risk factors where triptans are contraindicated. Beyond this, gepants will see the most disruptive development in migraine management in generations with medicines that can have both acute and preventive effects, the latter evidenced by data from the discontinued drug telcagepant and the early-phase drug atogepant. Moreover, one can expect no risk of medication overuse syndromes with gepants since the more patients take, the less migraines they have. During the next years, as experience with monoclonal antibodies grows in clinical practice, we can expect an evolution in migraine management to take shape. Clinicians will be able to offer treatment patients want rather than trying to fit migraineurs into therapeutic boxes for their management. Despite pessimistic susurrations of a largely addlepated form, many patients, and physicians, will welcome new options, and the challenges of new treatment paradigms, with optimism.
Learn More >Diagnostic testing is of limited value among patients with migraine who present to an emergency department. Various nonopioid, disease-specific treatments are available for patients who present to an emergency department with migraine headache and associated features. Emergency physicians should recognize that the acute migraine presentation is part of an underlying disorder; care should be geared to the underlying headache disorder in addition to the acute attack.
Learn More >All patients with migraine merit acute treatment, which should optimally achieve a sustained pain-free response. Maximum acute treatment is associated with reduced risk of transformation of episodic to chronic migraine. The American Headache Society published the most recent complete evidence assessment of acute migraine treatments in 2015. Noninvasive neuromodulation represents a new, Food and Drug Administration-approved nonsignificant risk alternative for acute migraine therapy. The future of acute migraine treatment includes new devices and formulations of existing medications, new classes of acute medications, and new noninvasive nonsignificant risk neuromodulation devices, with many anticipated in the next few years.
Learn More >This study evaluated suicidality and its risk factors in patients with tension-type headache (TTH). We recruited new patients with TTH who visited general hospitals. We recorded their clinical characteristics and conducted the Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6) and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) for assessment. We also interviewed the patients to identify major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and suicidality with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Plus Version 5.0.0 (MINI). The frequency of suicidality was compared between TTH patients and healthy controls. Major risk factors for suicidality were also determined. A total of 332 TTH patients with the same number of healthy controls were recruited from five general hospitals. Suicidality was observed in 82 (24.7%) TTH patients. The frequency of suicidality was significantly higher in patients with TTH than in the controls. Furthermore, the frequency of suicidality was higher in patients with chronic TTH (CTTH) than in the controls. The major risk factors for suicidality were MDD, GAD, a low education level, insomnia, chronicity of TTH, and pericranial tenderness. Suicidal ideation or attempt seems to be a common feature in TTH. Therefore, it is important to identify risk factors related to suicidality in TTH patients, which may help reduce suicidality.
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