According to recent observations, there is worldwide vitamin D insufficiency (VDI) in various populations. A number of observations suggest a link between low serum levels of vitamin D and higher incidence of chronic pain. A few case reports have shown a beneficial effect of vitamin D therapy in patients with headache disorders. Serum vitamin D level shows a strong correlation with the latitude. Here, we review the literature to delineate a relation of prevalence rate of headaches with the latitude. We noted a significant relation between the prevalence of both tension-type headache and migraine with the latitude. There was a tendency for headache prevalence to increase with increasing latitude. The relation was more obvious for the lifetime prevalence for both migraine and tension-type headache. One year prevalence for migraine was also higher at higher latitude. There were limited studies on the seasonal variation of headache disorders. However, available data indicate increased frequency of headache attacks in autumn–winter and least attacks in summer. This profile of headache matches with the seasonal variations of serum vitamin D levels. The presence of vitamin D receptor, 1α-hydroxylase and vitamin D-binding protein in the hypothalamus further suggest a role of vitamin D deficiency in the generation of head pain.

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A 7-year-old child who suffered from symptomatic focal epilepsy as a sequel to perinatal hypoxia used to have frequent seizures. This time she developed prolonged status epilepticus lasting for over 5 hours. She received a treatment in the form of intravenous midazolam and reinitiation of sodium valproate and clobazam that were discontinued previously. Seizures were controlled over a couple of hours, but she remained unresponsive. Later, she developed acute onset dystonia (day 3 post-status epilepticus) and also myoclonic jerks. She presented to us after 3 weeks of onset of these complaints and we considered hypoxic encephalopathy resulting from prolonged status epilepticus or acute encephalitis or non-convulsive status epilepticus. However, acute onset dystonia and periodicity of myoclonic jerks were pointers against it, and on evaluation, she was diagnosed with atypical fulminant subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). Knowing the atypical presentations of SSPE is important in planning management and prognostication.

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