Cannabinoids in headache: helpful or harmful?

Purpose Of Review: Cannabinoids have gained attention as a potential treatment for headache disorders, including migraine and cluster headache. While some studies suggest cannabinoids may provide analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, concerns remain regarding their potential for overuse headache, cognitive impairment, and psychological dependence. This study critically evaluates the current evidence on cannabinoids in headache treatment, weighing their benefits and risks.

Multimodal Migraine Management and the Pursuit of Migraine Freedom: A Narrative Review.

Migraine is a neurologic disease with a complex pathophysiology that can be controlled with current treatment options but not cured. Therefore, treatment expectations are highly variable. The concept of migraine freedom was recently introduced and can mean different things, with some, for example, expecting complete freedom from headache and associated symptoms and others accepting the occasional migraine attack if it does not impact functioning.

Migraine treatment with external concurrent occipital and trigeminal neurostimulation-A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of concurrent non-invasive stimulation of occipital and trigeminal nerves in acute treatment of migraine with or without aura.

Background: Non-invasive neuromodulation devices stimulating a single peripheral nerve or anatomic distribution are routinely used by patients with migraine refractory to the first-line drugs or those who opt out of pharmaceutical treatment. Concurrent occipital and trigeminal stimulation was described in an invasive setting, and its safety cost outweighed its efficacy gain.

Integrative, Interventional, and Non-invasive Approaches for the Treatment for Migraine During Pregnancy.

Purpose Of Review: While most women with migraine improve during pregnancy, a subset may remain unchanged or even become more severe. Given the limited evidence for the use of prescription medications during pregnancy, many look to other treatment modalities. We seek to review complementary and integrative medicine, procedural interventions, and neurostimulation to empower women with safe and effective treatment options during pregnancy.

Phase 3 randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled Trial of e-TNS for the Acute treatment of Migraine (TEAM).

Migraine is one of the most common and debilitating neurological disorders worldwide. External Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation (e-TNS) is a non-pharmacological, non-invasive therapeutic alternative for patients with migraine. The TEAM study was a prospective, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, Phase 3 trial for 2-h, continuous, e-TNS treatment of a single moderate or severe migraine attack at home.

Essential components of care in a multidisciplinary headache center: Perspectives from headache neurology specialists.

Background And Objective: Comprehensive headache care involves numerous specialties and components that have not been well documented or standardized. This study aimed to elicit best practices and characterize important elements of care to be provided in multidisciplinary headache centers.

Methods: Qualitative, semi-structured telephone interviews with a purposive sample of headache neurology specialists from across the US, using open-ended questions.

Preventing the Progression of Episodic Migraine to Chronic Migraine with Acute Treatment Optimization.

Purpose Of Review: To evaluate the evidence regarding acute migraine treatment optimization to prevent the progression of episodic migraine to chronic migraine. This review also provides a summary of evidence-based acute migraine treatments and how to tailor a regimen based on an individual patient's needs.

Recent Findings: Several acute migraine treatments have been food and drug administration (FDA)-approved since 2020.

Complementary and integrative medicine perspectives among veteran patients and VHA healthcare providers for the treatment of headache disorders: a qualitative study.

Objective: To evaluate veteran patient and provider perceptions and preferences on complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) for headache management.

Background: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has spearheaded a Whole Health system of care focusing on CIM-based care for veteran patients. Less is known about patients' and providers' CIM perceptions and preferences for chronic headache management.

A patient perspective of complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) for migraine treatment: a social media survey.

Unlabelled: To survey persons with migraine who use social media about Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) for the treatment of migraine.

Background: CIM encompasses medical treatments that are not part of but are used in concert with mainstream medicine. Between 28 and 82% of people with migraine use non-drug approaches, and approximately 50% of people with migraine do not discuss non-drug treatments with their healthcare providers (HCPs).

Headache in Patients With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection: A Narrative Review.

Objective: To summarize available literature regarding headache as a manifestation of coronaviruses and to describe potential underlying mechanisms.

Review Methods: References for this review were identified by searches within PubMed without any date restrictions. The search terms used were coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) clinical manifestation, COVID-19 epidemiology, neurologic findings in COVID-19, headache in COVID-19, neurologic manifestations of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and headache in SARS-CoV-2.

Headache in Ruptured Intracranial Dermoid Cysts.

Purpose Of Review: Intracranial dermoid cysts are benign, rare mass-occupying lesions of the central nervous system arising from the neuroectodermal cell lines. While rupture of intracranial dermoid cysts is rare, it can present with a variety of clinical manifestations. To explore the headache manifestations among patients with ruptured intracranial dermoid cysts.

Neuropathogenesis and Neurologic Manifestations of the Coronaviruses in the Age of Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Review.

Importance: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in December 2019, causing human coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has now spread into a worldwide pandemic. The pulmonary manifestations of COVID-19 have been well described in the literature. Two similar human coronaviruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-1) are known to cause disease in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Hemicrania Continua: a Clinical Perspective on Diagnosis and Management.

Purpose Of Review: Hemicrania Continua (HC) is a daily and persistent form of headache that is characterized by side-locked pain which is continuous, varies in severity and can be associated with conjunctival injection, lacrimation, nasal congestion, rhinorrhea, eyelid edema, forehead or facial sweating and miosis and/or ptosis.

Recent Findings: Functional imaging studies have shown activation of subcortical structures such as the posterior hypothalamus and dorsal rostral pons, which are known to disinhibit the trigeminal autonomic reflex, a reflex responsible for autonomic outflow through trigeminal efferents. A similar pathway activation is seen in other Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TAC) which solidifies HC as a TAC.

Appropriate use of neuroimaging in headache.

Headache may be caused by primary disorders, such as migraines, or secondary disorders, such as intracranial neoplasm or hemorrhage. Imaging plays an important role in differentiating between primary and secondary headache disorders. This article reviews the effectiveness of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the evaluation of a patient with a headache.