First Published Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Joan Robinson
Research conducted at the University of Queensland has found a traditional extract of Kava (Piper methysticum), a medicinal plant from the South Pacific, to be effective in reducing anxiety.
To be published in the journal Psychopharmacology are the results of a world-first clinical trial which found that a water-soluble extract of Kava was effective in treating anxiety and improving mood.
The Kava was prescribed in the form of tablets supplied by Queensland company MediHerb Pty Ltd.
Lead researcher Jerome Sarris, a PhD candidate from the University’s School of Medicine, said the placebo-controlled study found Kava to be an effective and safe treatment option for people with chronic anxiety and varying levels of depression.
“We’ve been able to show that Kava offers a natural alternative for the treatment of anxiety, and unlike some pharmaceutical options, has less risk of dependency and less potential of side effects,” Mr Sarris said.
Each week participants were given a clinical assessment as well as a self-rating questionnaire to measure their anxiety and depression levels.
The researchers found anxiety levels decreased dramatically for participants taking five of the kava tablets daily compared to the placebo group.
“We also found that Kava had a positive impact on reducing depression levels, something which had not been tested before,” Mr Sarris said.
In 2002 Kava was banned in Europe, the UK and Canada due to concerns over liver toxicity.
While the thee-week trial raised no major health concerns regarding the Kava extract used, the researchers said larger studies were required to confirm the drug’s safety.
“When extracted in the appropriate way, Kava may pose less or no potential liver problems. I hope the results will encourage governments to reconsider the ban,” Mr Sarris said.
“Ethanol and acetone extracts, which sometimes use the incorrect parts of the Kava, were being sold in Europe. That is not the traditional way of prescribing Kava in the Pacific Islands.
“Our study used a water-soluble extract from the peeled rootstock of a medicinal cultivar of the plant, which is approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia and is currently legal in Australia for medicinal use.
“In addition to benefiting sufferers of anxiety, allowing the sale of Kava in Europe, the UK and Canada would significantly enhance Pacific Island economies, which have lost hundreds of millions of dollars by not being able to export the plant over the past several years.“
-
*Conflicts of interest: Kerry Bone is a co-founder of and consultant to MediHerb Pty Ltd, the supplier of the tablets used in this trial. He was not involved in the conduct of the study or the analysis of the data.
-
Comment:
-
In addition to the acute necrotizing hepatitis risk alluded to in the article, prolonged high doses may cause “kava dermopathy” a scaly skin rash [Kava monograph (
)]. It may also increase photo sensitivity, so excess sun exposure should be avoided.
Kava may be contraindicated if taking benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, buspirone (Buspar®) , some Parkinson Disease medications and antidepressants which act on noradrenaline/norepinephrine such as the tricyclics, desvenlafaxine (Pristiq®), duloxetine (Cymbalta®), mirtazapine (Remeron®), venlafaxine (Effexor®), and the dopaminergic antidepressant bupropion (Wellbutrin®). Consult a physician or pharmacist before taking a Kava supplement with these or other medications.
Abuse of Kava in the form of bulk tea/powder has had a devastating effect on some Australian (and North American) Indigenous communities where it has replaced alcohol. Its use is now restricted in some states.
First Published Tuesday, 12 May 2009
coverage in health care/LTSS reform. These proposals can be found here:
http://finance. senate.gov/ sitepages/ baucus.htm. I’m pleased to report that
on page 49 of the document (page 50 in the pdf), several positive proposals
around Long Term Services and Supports are included. This is a direct result
of the advocacy work of our community. They include eliminating
institutional level of care requirements for Medicaid Home and Community
Based Services (HCBS) waivers, prohibiting states from using waiting lists
to prevent eligible beneficiaries from accessing HCBS and increasing the
federal Medicaid match for HCBS by one percent.
devote a lot more time and effort to both keeping this progress intact and
making more, I’d like to thank everyone who has utilized our advocacy
alert<http://www.change. org/autisticadvo cacy/actions/ view/pass_ the_community_ choice_act_ with_comprehensi ve_health_ care_reform>on
the inclusion of the Community Choice Act in Health Care Reform and
who
has sent it along to their friends. CCA is still not included in health care
reform, and more effort must go into ensuring that it will be. Nonetheless,
growing pressure is changing the political realities. We’ve gone from a
situation where the inclusion of Long Term Services and Supports in health
care reform was considered impossible to one where it is considered a real
possibility, if we devote the time, energy and attention into making it
happen. I encourage you all, as members of the Autistic and autism
communities, to continue to join us and the cross-disability advocacy
community in advocating around this essential issue.
same. Our advocacy alert can be found at:
http://www.change. org/autisticadvo cacy/actions/ view/pass_ the_community_ choice_act_ with_comprehensi ve_health_ care_reform
Ari Ne’eman
President
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
1660 L Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
http://www.autistic advocacy. org
732.763.5530
Take a look at our innovative new Public Service Announcement produced with
the Dan Marino Foundation at http://www.nomyths. org
making a donation at:
https://www. change.org/ donation/ create?charity_ id=211198
First Published Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Psychiatry Weekly 2009 May 11;4(1)
Freeman M.
Staff Psychiatrist, Massachusetts General Hospital; Lecturer, Harvard Medical School
The class of “natural” nonpharmacologic treatments in psychiatry-omega-3 fatty acids, St. John’s wort, etc.-is probably best described as “integrative,” although the term “complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)” is more widely recognized.
Complementary approaches generally refer to those that would not be considered mainstream or conventional but would be consistent with general concepts of Western medicine. Alternative approaches are usually considered outside traditional Western conceptual frameworks.
More…
© 2009 Psychiatry Weekly, LLC
Panic attacks linked to poor prognosis in mood disorder patients
By Mark Cowen
MedWire News: A history of recurrent panic attacks is associated with a greater severity of depression-associated symptoms in patients with mood disorders, particularly those with bipolar disorder, research shows.
More…
© 2009 Current Medicine Group Ltd
First Published Wednesday, 13 May 2009
It is not often that articles on psychology studies are described as beautiful, but a piece in The Atlantic on the Harvard Study of Adult Development is quite sublime.
The project has followed two groups of men for almost seventy years, tracking physical and emotional health, opinions and attitudes, successes and failures, all in the hope of understanding what makes us happy.
It weaves the staccato train of numerical data with reflections and insights from the men themselves to attempt the impossible – it hopes to record lives.
From their brash early adulthood to their deaths or dotage the stories are brief but profound, sometimes tragic, sometimes joyful, sometimes mundane.
The study itself has generated some remarkable findings, such as the massive impact of relationships, the fading long-term effects of childhood experiences, or the role of defences in managing emotional well-being, but the piece is as much about the life of the project as its conclusions.
It serves as a meditation on the tension between meaning and measurement when trying to understand the individual, and on the potentially futile attempt to extrapolate an experience of a generation to a world of other times, people and places.
But the article also about psychiatrist George Valliant, who has been coordinating the study for over 40 years, and whose life is intricately woven into the project.
The ending of the article is both surprising and poignant, because it questions what we can truly learn from the lives of others.
Link to Atlantic article ‘What Makes Us Happy?’
Source: Â http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/05/the_study_of_a_lifet.html
First Published Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Luke Dicker and dog Poppy with the Malmesbury Young Citizen of the Year award
By Joe Ware
An autistic pupil expelled from Malmesbury Secondary School three years ago has been named as Malmesbury’s Young Citizen of the Year.
Luke Dicker, 17, of Hullavington, who also suffers from attention deficit disorder, has turned his life around and become a leading spokesperson for young people with autism since being expelled in Year 10.
Earlier this year he featured on the BBC’s Politics Show and questioned government minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry on the autism bill going through Parliament.
Luke was nominated for the award by Malmesbury town councillor Ray Sanderson and will go on to represent Malmesbury in the Rotary International Young Citizen of the Year Awards in 2010. Luke said: “I knew I had been nominated but it was a good surprise to be announced the winner. It has been nice to hear so many people saying lots of nice thing about me. But at the end of the day I’ve just made the best of a bad situation.”
Luke said he struggled to cope with mainstream schooling. He said: “At Malmesbury School I didn’t get on very well.
“The learning support staff were great but they just didn’t have the resources to deal with autistic students.
“I didn’t like the classes of 30 people and I found it really hard to concentrate.
“Also, people didn’t really understand my condition and I had some difficulties with other students.”
It was when Luke started school at Springfields, a specialist sports college in Calne, that he was able to get his schooling back on track.
He said: “Going to Springfields was the best thing that could have happened to me.
“All the staff are trained to deal with people with autism and the class sizes are small, only eight in each, so I found it much easier to concentrate.
“Also, the sport provides a physical outlet to deal with your anxiety and stress.”
He added: “Because I was in the middle of my GCSes I had to start from scratch and really get my head down.”
Luke has since praised the school at speaking engagements around the country.
He is about to sit the last of his GCSEs and complete an NVQ. He is thinking of studying motorsport engineering at Lackham College.
*Site Under Construction
(AP Photo/Tuscaloosa News, Dan Lopez)
David Seale, 9, gets a licking from his border collie, Michael, as his mother Judy looks on, Thursday, April 16, 2009 at their home in Vance, Ala. David Seale, 9, has Asperger’s syndrome, a type of autism, and his family learned in October that he qualified to receive a service dog from the Wilderwood Service Dogs facility in Maryville, Tenn. Michael is named after Michael Phelps.
Associated Press
Published: May 10, 2009
TUSCALOOSA (AP) — At the start of her day at Sprayberry Education Center, Pam Miller pulls out picture cue cards for her students. Because seven of her eight students can’t communicate verbally, Miller, the autism K-5 teacher at Sprayberry, relies on the picture cards and sign language to interpret her students’ needs.
This is Miller’s second year at Sprayberry, but throughout her 18 years in teaching — previously she worked with special education students at Holt Elementary School — she has worked with a number of autistic children.
“I love working with children with autism because everyone is so different,“ Miller said. “They all have such unique and wonderful personalities. There are no two that are the same. They’re each a mystery, and you have to figure out what makes each one work.“
In teaching children with severe autism, Miller deals with students who may experience difficulty communicating, often exhibit repetitive behavior and can be easily upset by small changes in their environment.
So, before she can teach her students their ABCs and 123s, Miller has to first learn about her students’ lives and what makes them tick.
Miller said she has learned that each child has a different “stimming,“ which is a self-stimulating, repetitive behavior, such as hand-flapping, spinning or humming, that they enjoy.
“Some of them like to hold a string, some need something to flash, some sing songs all day and some repeat lines from movies. Every child has something unique and different about them,“ Miller said.
Miller said that after figuring out what interests her students, it’s then her job to integrate those interests into her teaching.
With one student who loves trains, she will use trains in her lessons. With another student who loves to sing, Miller tries to incorporate singing on a daily basis.
“Trying to educate them is like figuring out a puzzle and putting a mystery together,“ Miller said.
Miller said her interest in special education was inspired by her own life.
She has two cousins with disabilities and is amazed by their strength and self-acceptance, she said.
“One of my cousins had an illness that only five children in the U.S. had at that time. He was always fascinating and would often laugh about his handicap. He didn’t let other people get him down by their staring at him. He was the strongest little creatures I’ve ever known,“ she said.
Though she loves her job, her work can be frustrating at times, Miller said.
She works hard to establish a level of trust with her students, but there are always moments when she fails to do so and doesn’t know how to comfort them, she said.
“You might have a child who’s crying with tears pouring down their face, but you don’t know if they’re hungry or hurting. You have to go through a checklist: Are they hungry? Do they have to go to the bathroom?
“Sometimes we never figure it out, and that’s the frustrating part, not knowing what to do to help them,“ Miller said.
That’s one reason Miller’s duties take her beyond the classroom. She stays in constant communication with her students’ parents.
“It’s very critical to have communication,“ Miller said. “We do a daily folder I give to all my parents each day. I give all my parents my cell phone number and am available at all times to talk things out and to help. Whatever I can do, I’m there.“
Suzanne Gaston, whose son, Bradley, is in Miller’s class, said Miller’s passion for her work changes lives.
Gaston said she noticed an immediate difference in Bradley’s social skills and understanding after coming to Sprayberry.
Miller was able to figure out his learning style and build his trust, Gaston said.
“Last year, I struggled with the thought that he would never read, since he failed every standardized kindergarten-level prereading test. But now, we can lie in bed at night and spell words or I can ask him to tell me the months of the year, the days of the week and the seasons,“ Gaston said.
Annette Gilliland’s son, Patrick, 13, has Asperger’s Syndrome and worked with Miller from kindergarten to fourth grade when he was at Holt Elementary.
Asperger’s Syndrome is a disorder that affects children’s ability to socialize and communicate effectively with others. Children with Asperger’s typically exhibit social awkwardness and an all-absorbing interest in specific topics.
Patrick’s intense interest and knowledge of statistics is characteristic of Asperger’s, and Gilliland said Patrick did things with Miller that he wouldn’t do with other people. She credits his social skills and level of education to Miller.
“She treated him as an equal. To her, he wasn’t a student with a disability but just a typical student,“ Gilliland said. “He’s totally mainstream now and is on the A-B honor roll. To be a high-functioning autism child is wonderful.“
Because early intervention is crucial for children with autism, Miller plays a pivotal role in her students’ development.
In working with her students, Miller not only helps to improve their communication and social skills, she helps lay a foundation for learning that will prepare and follow them throughout their lives.
While parents call her an angel, Miller said she’s just doing the job she loves.
“There are so many success stories. Those are the moments that keep you going through the repetitive, doing the same thing everyday,“ Miller said. “When a child who doesn’t talk looks you in the eye and makes a noise, my wanting to figure out what it is they are trying to say is why I do what I do everyday. Getting to come to work everyday and do what I love doing is a blessing.“
Source: Â http://www.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/tuscaloosa_teacher_values_autistic_students/71870/
*Site under Construction
Journalists: find our latest press release about Gary McKinnon’s case in ‘Related resources’ at the bottom of this page.
Gary McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in August 2008 and faces extradition to the United States to stand trial for allegedly hacking into US Defense computer systems. As a result of Gary’s late diagnosis, his Asperger syndrome was not taken into account in any legal proceedings prior to August 2008.
A Judicial Review of the decision to extradite Gary McKinnon is due to be heard on 9 and 10 June 2009. This latest legal battle, and perhaps last chance in Gary’s case, is approaching fast. To help stop Gary’s extradition we will present a petition to 10 Downing Street.
Please add your name to our petition and help to show the Prime Minister the huge level of support that Gary has. Signing the petition will only take a minute – add your name today, and ask your friends to do the same.
More about Gary McKinnon’s case
Gary McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in August 2008 and faces extradition to the United States to stand trial for allegedly hacking into US Defense computer systems. As a result of Gary’s late diagnosis, his Asperger syndrome was not taken into account in any legal proceedings prior to August 2008.
The Judicial Review, due to be heard on 9 and 10 June 2009, will represent the first opportunity to consider Gary’s Asperger syndrome in relation to his case and to examine whether extradition would contravene specific human rights.
The decision to allow Judicial Review was the result of a High Court hearing on 23 January 2009. The National Autistic Society (NAS)Â submitted evidence to this hearing about the nature of Asperger syndrome and the fact that people receive late diagnoses. This evidence was particularly important since the High Court acknowledged that Gary had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome late and that it seemed that late diagnosis was not uncommon.
Janis Sharp, mother of Gary McKinnon, told the NAS:
“We have been hugely grateful and at times overwhelmed by the incredible show of support for Gary’s struggle we have received over the years.
“Since his diagnosis with Asperger syndrome last year, the NAS has backed our pleas that his extradition should be reconsidered in the light of his condition. More recently we have been heartened by support from Lord Carlile, Boris Johnson, Sting and Trudie Styler, and Terry Waite, all of whom have an interest in human rights issues and believe that Gary should not be extradited.
“We desperately hope that the Government listens to all those who have lent their support and realises what we all know: that to extradite Gary to the USA would be disproportionate, wrong and potentially life-threatening.”
The Judicial Review is vital to halting extradition given the disappointing decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on 26 February 2009 not to bring charges against Gary McKinnon in the UK, despite widespread public support for this from campaigners and the autism community. In addition, MPs from across the political parties are continuing to question the decision to extradite Gary.
NAS Chief Executive Mark Lever said:
“We are very disappointed by the CPS decision not to prosecute Gary McKinnon in the UK. Over 4,000 people emailed the Attorney General about this through a campaign on the NAS website and Gary continues to have a lot of support from the autism community. We still strongly believe that the extradition, and a possible maximum security prison sentence, would be inappropriate and very damaging for anyone affected by Asperger syndrome.”
Related resources
Relevant areas/articles elsewhere on this website
Relevant documents for downloading
Source:Â http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1895&a=18512
Majority of America’s 2 million adolescents suffering from depression episodes did not receive treatment in the past year
SAMHSA
Adolescents without health insurance were less than half as likely to get treatment as those with Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or private health insurance coverage.
A new report reveals that 8.2 percent (2 million) youths aged 12 to 17 experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year. Only about two-fifths (38.9%) of these adolescents received treatment during this period according to the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
A major depressive episodes is defined as a period of two weeks or longer during which there is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure and at least four other symptoms that reflect a change in functioning, including problems with sleep, eating, energy, concentration, and self-image.
The report also found that health insurance coverage seemed to be a major factor in determining whether adolescents experiencing major depressive episodes in the past year received treatment. Among these adolescents, those without health insurance coverage were far less likely to have received treatment (17.2%) than those with Medicaid/CHIP (42.9%) or private health insurance (40.6%).
Based on a nationwide SAMHSA survey, Major Depressive Episode and Treatment among Adolescents also reveals the types of treatments adolescents received for major depressive episodes. The report shows that among treated adolescents:
- *58.8 percent saw or spoke with a counselor
- *36.8 percent saw or spoke with a psychologist
- *27.3 percent saw or spoke with a psychiatrist or psychotherapist
- *26.6 percent saw or spoke with a general practitioner or family doctor
In addition, the report shows that less than half (46.8%) of adolescents who received treatment for an depressive episodes in the past year used prescription medication for their condition.
“This report contributes to the growing realization that much more must be done to meet enormous mental health needs of our young people,” said SAMHSA’s Acting Administrator, Eric Broderick, D.D.S, M.P.H. “This report, along with the enactment of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the recent landmark report by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine on children’s mental health, highlight our nation’s growing concern and commitment to alleviating the damage and suffering inflicted by untreated mental disorders on children, their families and their communities.“
The report is drawn from SAMHSA’s 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which collected data from a representative sample of approximately 22,000 adolescents throughout the United States.
SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, 2009 May 12. The NSDUH Report: Major Depressive Episode and Treatment among Adolescents. Rockville, MD. [HTML | PDF ()]
Jan
20
There appear to be a great many on the autism spectrum and within spectrum families who suffer from headaches in their various forms. For those dealing with daily cluster-type headaches, I feel and share your pain. There are some wonderful websites filled with the latest information and with built-in support forums on the net these days. Please remember that no matter what type of headache you have, the most important thing is that you see a health care professional for treatment. Self-diagnoses of head-pain can be life threatening.
Types of Migraines & Headaches
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/types-of-headaches.html
Symptoms & Types
What’s your headache pattern? Frequent headaches, tension headaches, cluster headaches, migraines. Learn the symptoms and types — and then talk to a doctor.
Symptoms
Common Migraine and Headache Symptoms
Not all headaches are the same and symptoms vary. See what yours mean. Are your headache symptoms from a migraine?
Learn About What Happens During a Migraine
Our doctors at eMedicinehealth.com outline the five phases of migraine.
Warning Signs
Severe Headache or Medical Emergency?
Learn these warning signs and when to head for the hospital or call a headache specialist.
Know What to Do About Severe Headaches
Check these 12 symptoms of headache emergency from our doctors at eMedicinehealth.com.
Types
Does severe headache pain attack you in cycles? You may have cluster headaches.
Related Guide: Types of Migraine Headaches
Did you know that migraines can exist with other conditions? Learn about the different types of migraine headaches. See who gets them and what conditions can be associated them.
Got sinus headache pain? Get some answers.
Get some answers about tension headaches here.
Complications
Have Frequent Migraines Become a Daily Problem?
Learn about “transformed headaches” – migraine headaches that become a daily menace.
Rebound Headaches: Who Gets These Frequent Headaches?
Rebound headaches happen when you misuse or overuse pain relievers. Here’s what to do.
Migraine With Aura Ups Heart Risk
Women who have migraines with auras disturbance have an increased risk of heart disease.
Source: http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/guide/migraines-headaches-symtpoms-types
Cluster Headaches
Cluster headache, nicknamed “suicide headache“, is a neurological disease that involves, as its most prominent feature, an immense degree of pain. “Cluster” refers to the tendency of these headaches to occur periodically, with active periods interrupted by spontaneous remissions. The cause of the disease is currently unknown. It affects approximately 0.1% of the population, and men are more commonly affected than women.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_headache
What Are Cluster Headaches?
Although many people have never heard of cluster headaches, they are possibly the most debilitating of all headaches. The pain is excruciating, and because they do happen fairly predictably in a pattern, there is the added stress of the anticipation of that pain. Perhaps they aren’t as well known as migraines because only about one percent of the population suffers from them, men more than women by 4:1, but even so there are probably one million Americans victimized by these headaches.
If you have cluster headaches, let me hasten to direct you to a support group at http://www.clusterheadaches.com. The webmaster is a 32 year old career Air Force man who has suffered from cluster headaches since he was 18 years old. In short, he knows whereof he speaks, and the thousands of people who have added their stories to the message board can certainly help you in those moments when you feel terribly alone in your pain. Nobody understands as well as someone who has been there.
You can also click on to “Ask Doc Greg” on this website to learn interesting facts or ask questions of this doctor and cluster headache sufferer who studied at Johns Hopkins and received his M.D. from George Washington University. He answers with knowledge and compassion, in plain English – no medical gobbledygook.
Cluster headaches are quite unlike migraines although they also typically affect one side of the head. They are thought to be caused by the release of serotonin (histamine), but antihistamines don’t help. They are not hereditary. Many people who suffer from cluster headaches have a history of heavy smoking, another good reason to stop smoking. Alcohol can trigger a cluster headache, even before you finish one drink.
They happen quickly, often awakening the person from sleep. The pain is intense. In fact, mothers have said it’s worse than the pain of natural childbirth, and men have said it feels like being stabbed in the eye with an ice pick or being grabbed by the talons of a huge bird.
Along with the pain comes drooping of the eyelid, excessive tearing and bloodshot appearance on the affected side, plus nasal congestion, and the person is agitated and unable to remain still. At the height of the pain, which is reached within five to fifteen minutes, the person will commonly bang his head on the furniture or anything solid, and some victims have actually committed suicide. Each headache lasts between a few minutes and an hour or more before disappearing as fast as it began.
The pattern of the clusters is either episodic or chronic. Episodic cluster headaches happen daily, sometimes several a day, for a few weeks or months and then go into remission for a period of months or years. They often happen in spring or fall, but are not connected with allergies. About ten percent of cluster headache sufferers have chronic clusters which happen for a year or more without relief.
You can imagine that if you are enduring several of these ordeals each day for a period of weeks, unable to sleep because you fear waking up with this terrible pain, everything in your life suffers. Your spouse, unable to help except for occasionally driving you to the emergency room, is subject to a high level of stress too and your marriage may suffer. You are likely too tired to do your job well, and every other aspect of your life may be consumed by the stress and anxiety caused by your headaches.
On top of all that, you tell your boss or your friend that you have cluster headaches and they say, “Oh, that’s a shame. I have some awful headaches too, and sometimes aspirin just doesn’t do the trick.” You probably have murderous fantasies about such people, but they simply don’t understand.
About the only thing a cluster headache sufferer can do is talk with his doctor about the various preventative medications available. Sometimes they do work, although not everyone benefits from them. The doctor may prescribe one medication to help prevent cluster headaches and another to take during the headache. In another article we’ll discuss the drugs and other treatments being used now.
Other than that, regular sleep habits, avoiding alcohol during a cluster, and trying to reduce the stress in your life can be of some help. Several of the websites I’ve listed for this page have helpful information about clusters, but for these frightening, excruciating headaches you really need to see your doctor and discuss what you can do to cope.
Source: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/headaches/29295/1
Cluster Headaches Worldwide Support Group
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/
From clusterheadaches.com “A Neurologist that I saw once gave me some information to take home from one of her medical books. To this day, it is still the BEST information that I have ever seen on Cluster Headaches…it’s awesome!
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/about.html
Cluster Headache Survey:
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/survey/index.html
“Water, Water, Water – The following information was written by Margi, the wife of a cluster headache sufferer. It has grown to be know simply as the “water treatment”. We’ve had so many requests for it that it has become it’s own page so you don’t have to search through all of the posts in the archives to find it.
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/water.html
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/traits.html
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/scale.html
Headache Links(Cluster & Other Types):
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/links.html
Paroxymsal Hemicrania – The Basics
by Teri Robert, Lead Expert
In the simplest of terms, paroxysmal hemicrania (PH) is a rare form of headache that usually begins in adulthood.
Characteristics of the pain of PH
-
*severe throbbing
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*claw-like, or boring
-
*usually on one side of the face; in, around, or behind the eye
- *occasionally reaching to the back of the neck
The pain of PH may be accompanied by:
-
*red and tearing eyes (lacrimation)
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*a drooping or swollen eyelid on the affected side of the face
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*nasal congestion
- *dull pain, soreness, or tenderness between attacks
Episodes of paroxysmal hemicrania typically occur from 5 to 40 times per day and last 2 to 45 minutes. The disorder has two forms:
-
1. Chronic PH: patients experience attacks on a daily basis for a year or more
- 2. Episodic PH: the headaches may remit for months or years
Certain movements of the head or neck or external pressure to the neck may trigger these headaches in some patients. The disorder is more common in women than in men.
Is there any treatment?
The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) indomethacin often provides complete relief from symptoms. Other less effective NSAIDs including celecoxib (Celebrex), calcium-channel blocking drugs (such as verapamil), and corticosteroids may be used to treat the disorder. Patients with both paroxysmal hemicrania and trigeminal neuralgia (a condition of the 5th cranial nerve that causes sudden, severe pain typically felt on one side of the jaw or cheek) should receive treatment for each disorder.
What is the prognosis?
Many patients experience complete to near-complete relief of symptoms following physician-supervised medical treatment. Paroxysmal hemicrania may last indefinitely but has been known to go into remission or stop spontaneously.
Information from the International Headache Society’s International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd Edition, is the best description of CP available:
3.2 Paroxysmal hemicrania
Description:
Attacks with similar characteristics of pain and associated symptoms and signs to those of cluster headache, but they are shorter-lasting, more frequent, occur more commonly in females and respond absolutely to indomethacin.
Diagnostic criteria:
-
1. At least 20 attacks fulfilling criteria B–D
-
2. Attacks of severe unilateral orbital, supraorbital or temporal pain lasting 2–30 minutes
-
3. Headache is accompanied by at least one of the following:
-
-
1. ipsilateral (on the same side as the headache) conjunctival injection (The forcing of a fluid into the conjuctiva, the mucous membrane that lines the eyelids.) and/or lacrimation (tearing)
-
2. ipsilateral nasal congestion and/or rhinorrhoea (runny nose)
-
3. ipsilateral eyelid oedema (swelling)
-
4. ipsilateral forehead and facial sweating
-
5. ipsilateral miosis (abnormal contraction of the pupils) and/or ptosis (drooping of the eyelid)
-
-
6. Attacks have a frequency above 5 per day for more than half of the time, although periods with lower frequency may occur
-
7. Attacks are prevented completely by therapeutic doses of indomethacin (Note 1)
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8. Not attributed to another disorder (Note 2)
Notes:
-
1. In order to rule out incomplete response, indomethacin should be used in a dose of 150mg or more daily orally or rectally, or 100 mg or by injection, but for maintenance smaller doses are often sufficient.
-
2. History and physical and neurological examinations do not suggest any of the disorders listed in groups 5–12, or history and/or physical and/or neurological examinations do suggest such disorder but it is ruled out by appropriate investigations, or such disorder is present but attacks do not occur for the first time in close temporal relation to the disorder.
Comments:
There is no male predominance. Onset is usually in adulthood, although childhood cases are reported. In the first edition all paroxysmal hemicranias were referred to as chronic paroxysmal hemicrania. Sufficient clinical evidence for the episodic subtype has accumulated to separate it in a manner analogous to cluster headache.
Paroxysmal hemicrania with coexistent trigeminal neuralgia (CPH-tic syndrome): Patients who fulfill criteria for both 3.2 Paroxysmal hemicrania and 13.1 Trigeminal neuralgia should receive both diagnoses. The importance of this observation is that both conditions require treatment. The pathophysiological significance of the association is not yet clear.
Summary and comments:
Paroxysmal Hemicrania (PH) is rare and difficult to treat. In most cases, patients with PH should seek care from a headache and Migraine specialist. Some of the symptoms, to an untrained practitioner could be mistaken for cluster headache. The response to indomethacin is one confirmation of a PH diagnosis. However, indomethacin is not well tolerated by some patients. If that occurs, other less effective NSAIDs including celecoxib (Celebrex), calcium-channel blocking drugs (such as verapamil), and corticosteroids may be used.
Also see:
Source: http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/types-of-headaches-271536-5.html
Paroxysmal Hemicrania – a Comprehensive View:
http://www.wellsphere.com/detailedSearch.s?keyword=Paroxysmal+Hemicrania&x=34&y=19
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1. BxL left…
I get a headache about twice a week. The cause has to be stress. I usually put pressure and massage the spots that hurt. That doesn’t work every time, but it surely helps.
Read more about frequent headaches at http://www.frequent-headaches.com/
*Site Under Construction
Diamond in the rough
Sandrine Bonnaire rose above a childhood in the run-down Paris suburbs to an acting career that has astonished France. Angelique Chrisafis meets her
On a hot spring day in a leafy suburb outside Paris, I’m wandering a tree-lined avenue trying to find Sandrine Bonnaire’s house. A gate in a high wall opens, giving way to a garden in bloom and a grand villa. Bonnaire’s husband, Guillaume Laurant, the screenwriter who co-wrote Amélie, welcomes me at the door. It could be the perfect setting for a French film. But then Bonnaire bursts down the stairs, coffee in hand, still chewing her breakfast, flinging herself on to an old sofa, puncturing any sense of grandeur.
Bonnaire is one of France’s best living actors, arguably the best of her generation. Over 27 years, her dimples and wide-eyed stare have featured in 49 films (her 50th is in pre-production) and her portrayals of misfits – from the stubborn drifter in Agnes Varda’s Vagabond to the illiterate housekeeper in Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie – earned her a reputation as cinema’s intellectual pin-up. However, she comes from anything but an intellectual background. Raised with her 10 siblings on a run-down estate outside Paris, Bonnaire left school at 15 after the director Maurice Pialat cast her in À Nos Amours (To Our Loves). Her performance as a loud-mouthed teenager with multiple boyfriends so astonished the critics that some feared the untrained 15-year-old would never be able to live up to it.
More than a quarter of a century later, though, she is a household name, famed for her emotional honesty on the screen and off it. Two years ago, she broke the silence in France surrounding autism, with a harrowing documentary about her sister, Sabine, showing her descent from piano-playing, high-functioning teenager to withdrawn and violent adult after being confined for five years in a psychiatric hospital where she was restrained and drugged. It had record audiences on French TV, won an award at Cannes, was shown across the world and saw her summoned by Nicolas Sarkozy to advise him on new plans for autism care.
Now Bonnaire is back in front of the camera in Mark of an Angel (L’Empreinte de l’Ange), an understated psychological thriller about a different family trauma: babies swapped at birth and brought up by the wrong parents. The film was inspired by a 2003 US news story about parents who realised their 10-year-old daughter had been switched on a maternity ward. But in the film, by director Safy Nebbou, the American saga has been pared down, twisted and turned on its head. A woman sees a young girl who she thinks resembles the baby she lost in a hospital fire years before. Obsessed by the likeness, she begins stalking the girl’s real mother and family.
It’s a subject with so much resonance in France that the same US case has already inspired a French TV film. “It’s such a universal story, I suppose,” says Bonnaire. “But this film is about lies: lies at the heart of a family and lying to yourself.”
Bonnaire plays a bourgeois mother with a perfect home and family; Catherine Frot, better known for playing comedy until the recent thriller The Page Turner, plays the woman driven mad by grief. Bonnaire says that after years of playing outsiders and misfits, she found it difficult to play the contented wife. “Safy said, ‘You’re a very nice woman, happy in herself, with a good husband and a nice house.’ And curiously, it was much harder to play that part than what comes afterwards in the film. I’ve never really played everyday people. I’ve played realist roles, but not mere daily life. There was always something incredible happening to my characters.”
But she liked the idea of a thriller about a family. “Our family makes us who we are, defines us totally. When you go to a therapist or have analysis, whatever reason you go in for, they will always bring you back to your family. We’re strong or weak according to what family we have. You might have left them long ago, might not even talk to them, but something lingers, we have no choice.”
Until Bonnaire lifted the lid on a life spent caring for her younger autistic sister, she had been reluctant to talk about her own family, or her Jehovah’s Witness mother. Did her childhood give her a sense of faith? “No, the only Jehovah’s Witness was my mother. Even my father didn’t believe in it; there was a lot of conflict between them because of that. We never believed in any of it; it annoyed us. We couldn’t bear that milieu, that world, those people – to us it was awful. Me, I don’t know where you find faith. I tend to say faith is believing in life, and as I love life, I try to do the best with it, make it as serene and joyous as possible. Like everyone, I guess.”
Bonnaire was the sixth of 11 children, and her sister Sabine was the seventh. She made the documentary, Her Name Is Sabine (Elle S’Appelle Sabine), “to bear witness” for all the other families of autistic people in France. In it, she cuts together her old home-video footage of the beautiful, long-haired young Sabine dancing, playing the piano, going on holiday to New York, swimming in the sea and speaking English. It stands in sharp contrast to the bloated, anxious, highly medicated Sabine of today, biting her hand and lashing out. Sabine watches the old home videos and weeps what she calls “tears of joy”. Her Name Is Sabine also follows her new life in a small house with carers in the French countryside. Bonnaire said she wanted to make the film because there weren’t enough proper portrayals of autistic people on screen. Rain Man, she felt, did not tell the whole story. People now stop Sabine in the street, recognising her from the film. I ask how she is. “I was with her yesterday,” Bonnaire says. “She’s making constant progress. The film did her good, the fact that people are taking an interest in her, that she can feel useful. It’s a big thing, because Sabine was always hidden, locked up in a hospital, called Crazy Sabine. And today she is accepted in the social world – people come to see her and tell her they loved the film. That has been very positive.”
Bonnaire only started acting by chance at 15, when one of her sisters answered Maurice Pialat’s ad for a teenager to star in À Nos Amours. She accompanied her sisters to a casting, just to watch, but was asked to do a test and, after a gruelling selection process, was chosen. “I didn’t want to be an actress. It wasn’t a dream. I didn’t have any dreams at all. Where I came from, families didn’t have money and no one could have afforded acting classes. For cinemas or museums, you had to go to Paris, which seemed really far away to us. When you’re a small child there’s no problem with the banlieues [high-rise suburbs] because it’s like a big playground where everyone knows each other. But when you become teenagers, you realise it’s a kind of ghetto: all the people on a certain income are put in one place, all the immigrants are put in another. So you feel shut away. Paris for us was like crossing a border.”
Now, she says, after working with so many intellectuals, she has educated herself. “But I’m absolutely not a grand intellectual, not at all.” Her Name Is Sabine has given her a taste for directing and she is writing her second screenplay, inspired by a man she knew as a child.
As for the future of French film, she says: “Our big directors are getting old now. Some have already left us, and those still here won’t be here for much longer. There are some young directors who are interesting, but I honestly don’t know who will be as talented as a Claude Sautet, a Claude Chabrol or a Maurice Pialat. For the moment, I can’t see who could take over. The fact that cinema is now funded by television has changed things: it’s more about entertainment, more comedy. From time to time, little miracles come along, like Seraphine, or La Graine et le Moulet (Couscous). And yet all the time people say, ‘Oh, la la’ – they’re worried French film is not going to last much longer. I’ve been hearing that for 15 years, but we’re still the country in Europe that makes the most films each year. We make more films than you, but perhaps our films don’t travel as well because of the language.”
With her own career, nothing was planned, she says. She never chose the astonishing roles given to her; she chose directors first. “I just wanted to work with the greats of French cinema,” she says with a shrug. “And they always cast me as rather marginal girls.”
• Sandrine Bonnaire will join a Q&A at Ciné Lumière, London, on Monday. Mark of an Angel is released on 22 May
Source: Â http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/08/sandrine-bonnaire-interview
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