headache Archives - Page 3 of 3 - The Daily Headache

NIH’s clinical trials database is brimming with clinical trials for headache disorders. There are currently 110 headache, 65 migraine and five cluster headache studies either actively recruiting or will do so soon.

Topics include:

PFO closure — To see if closing a hole in the heart can reduce or eliminate migraines for migraineurs with aura
fMRI — Brain imaging that shows active areas in the brain when a person is it pain and may help patients control pain
Emergency room treatment — Always a hot topic for headache sufferers, these studies seek to improve the ER experience for patients
Botox — Does Botox reduce the frequency of headaches for people with frequent migraine?
Sumatriptan for cluster headache — Testing different doses and drug delivery methods of the generic form of Imitrex
Occipital nerve stimulation — What more do you want to know?
Nerve blocks — Are they effective for prolonged migraine?

And there are many, many more. Many are for drugs, but others have minimal risks.You can search by which phase trails are in, I, II and III. The website breaks down how the trials differ:

In Phase I clinical trials, researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people (20-80) for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects.
In Phase II clinical trials, the study drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people (100-300) to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.
In Phase III studies, the study drug or treatment is given to large groups of people (1,000-3,000) to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.

To learn more about clinical trials and for definitions, stay tuned for tomorrow’s post.

My acupuncturist told me about an interesting phenomenon and I want to know if it holds true for other people.

When you don’t have a headache, relax your arms at your sides and push on your thighs in the area around where your arms hit. Is the area tender more tender than on another part of your body if you were to push it, like your calves?

Repeat this when you have a headache. Are the spots on your thighs more or less tender than when you didn’t have a headache.

Revealing the phenomenon would further compromise this already compromised experiment. So leave a comment or e-mail me with what you find and I’ll reveal the “results” in about a week. (No fair cheating by looking at the comments on the post!)

The verdict, 03/26/07: My acupuncturist told me that when people have migraines, the area on their thighs becomes painful to the touch and is not sensitive otherwise. This didn’t hold up in my “experiment.” Some people describe the same thing my acupuncturist said; many describe the opposite. I thought that he’d hit on a neat phenomenon, but apparently not.

Tag: headache

Current Clinical Trials for Headache, Migraine & Cluster Headache

Please Help Me With a Completly Unscientific, Unreliable Experiment