Although lumbar radicular pain is the most common chronic neuropathic pain syndrome, there have been few randomized studies of drug treatments. We compared the efficacy of morphine (15-90 mg), nortriptyline (25 -100 mg), their combination, and a benztropine "active placebo" (0.25-1 mg) in patients with chronic sciatica. Each period consisted of 5 weeks of dose escalation, 2 weeks of maintenance at the highest tolerated doses, and 2 weeks of dose tapering. The primary outcome was the mean daily leg pain score on a 0-10 scale during the maintenance period. Secondary outcomes included a 6-point ordinal global pain relief scale, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Oswestry Back Pain Disability Index (ODI) and the SF-36. In the 28 out of 61 patients who completed the study, none of the treatments produced significant reductions in average leg pain or other leg or back pain scores. Pain reduction, relative to placebo treatment was 14% for nortriptyline (95% CI= [−2%, 30%]), 7% for morphine (95% CI= [−8%, 22%]), and 7% for the combination treatment (95% CI= [−4%, 18%]). Mean doses were: nortriptyline alone, 84 +/− 24.44 (SD)mg/day; morphine alone, 62 +/−29mg/day; and combination, morphine, 49 +/−27 mg/day plus nortriptyline, 55 mg+/− 33.18 mg/ day. Over half of the study completers reported some adverse effect with morphine, nortriptyline or their combination. Within the limitations of the modest sample size and high dropout rate, these results suggest that nortriptyline, morphine and their combination may have limited effectiveness in the treatment of chronic sciatica.

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence, sociodemographic correlates, and comorbidity of recurrent headache in children in the United States. Participants were individuals aged 4 to 18 years (n = 10 198) who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Data on recurrent and other health conditions were analyzed. Frequent or severe headaches including migraine in the past 12 months were reported in 17.1% of children. Asthma, hay fever, and frequent ear infections were more common in children with headache, with at least 1 of these occurring in 41.6% of children with headache versus 25.0% of children free of headache. Other medical problems associated with childhood headaches include anemia, overweight, abdominal illnesses, and early menarche. Recurrent headache in childhood is common and has significant medical comorbidity. Further research is needed to understand biologic mechanisms and identify more homogeneous subgroups in clinical and genetic studies. Keywordsheadache; migraine; comorbidity; prevalence Headache is a common complaint in children and adolescents. The most frequent type of recurrent headache in young children is migraine, 1 while the frequency of tension type headache increases in the later years of childhood. Recurrent headaches can negatively impact a child's life in several ways, including school absences, decreased academic performance, social stigma, and impaired ability to establish and maintain peer relationships. The quality of life in children with migraine is impaired to a degree similar to that in children with arthritis or cancer. 2 There has been limited population-based research on headache and migraine in children, particularly in the United States. Most of our knowledge regarding the prevalence and demographic correlates of migraine is derived from school-based questionnaire studies in European countries [3][4][5][6] and some from the United States. 7,8 Prevalence estimates for headache in prepubertal children range from 2.4% to 17% for migraine and 4% to 5% for frequent or severe headache. For the postpubertal ages estimates are considerably higher, ranging from NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript 5% to 18% for migraine and 9% to 29% for other frequent or severe headaches. Despite the impact of headache on pediatric health, only 1 population-based American study to date has examined the frequency of recurrent headache in children. 9 Individuals who suffer from migraine or severe headaches are also diagnosed with certain other medical conditions at a higher than expected frequency. Comorbidity can significantly influence the delivery of medical care as it may confound diagnosis and provide special therapeutic challenges. No population-based study to date has systematically examined the patterns of medical comorbidity of recurrent headache or migraine in childhood. Knowledge of other biologic systems involved would not only help physicians provide better care for their patients but may also ...

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Objective To determine the prevalence, impact, and stability of different subtypes of headache in a 30 year prospective follow-up study of a general population sample. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Participants 591 people aged 19–20 from a cohort of 4547 residents of Zurich, Switzerland, interviewed seven times across 30 years of follow-up. Main outcome measures Prevalence of headache; stability of the predominant subtype of headache over time; and age of onset, severity, impact, family history, use of healthcare services, and drugs for headache subtypes. Results The average one year prevalences of subtypes of headache were 0.9% (female:male ratio of 2.8) for migraine with aura, 10.9% (female:male ratio of 2.2) for migraine without aura, and 11.5% (female:male ratio of 1.2) for tension-type headache. Cumulative 30 year prevalences of headache subtypes were 3.0% for migraine with aura, 36.0% for migraine without aura, and 29.3% for tension-type headache. Despite the high prevalence of migraine without aura, most cases were transient and only about 20% continued to have migraine for more than half of the follow-up period. 69% of participants with migraine and 58% of those with tension-type headache manifested the same predominant subtype over time. However, the prospective stability of the predominant headache subtypes was quite low, with substantial crossover among the subtypes and no specific ordinal pattern of progression. A gradient of severity of clinical correlates and service use was present across headache subtypes; the greatest effect was for migraine with aura followed by migraine without aura, and then tension-type headache and unclassified headaches. Conclusions These findings highlight the importance of prospective follow-up of people with headache. The substantial longitudinal overlap among subtypes of headache shows the developmental heterogeneity of headache syndromes. Studies of the causes of headache that apply diagnostic nomenclature based on distinctions between discrete headache subtypes may not capture the true nature of headache in the general population.

Main Outcome Measures: Body mass index; levels of C-reactive protein, homocysteine, serum and red blood cell folate, vitamin B 12 , methylmalonic acid, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, nonhigh-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and uric acid; and platelet count.Results: Mean values for body mass index, C-reactive protein, and homocysteine were higher in children with than without headaches, and more children with headaches were in the highest quintile of risk for these factors. Serum and red blood cell folate levels were lower in children with headache. More children with headache were in the highest quintile of risk for 3 or more of these factors.Conclusions: Several important risk factors for longterm vascular morbidity cluster in children and adolescents with severe or recurrent headache or migraine. Further study and screening of children with headaches may permit improved preventive management.

We assessed the pain-relieving efficacy of static magnetic fields produced by 200 Gauss (G) magnets compared with 50G magnets in a double-blind, randomized, two-phase crossover study in patients with chronic lumbar radicular pain. The surface field strengths of the magnets were 200 and 50G. Phase I included four random periods of two-week duration: two periods with 200G, one period with 50G, and one period of "no treatment." The magnets were positioned either vertically or horizontally in standard lumbosacral elastic corsets. Phase II consisted of two five-week periods with the most effective magnet from Phase I and its corresponding 50 or 200G device. The primary outcome was average daily leg pain score (0-10 scale) in each period of Phase II. Thirty-eight of 40 randomized patients completed Phase I, and 28 of 31 Phase II participants completed the study. In Phase I, pain scores did not differ significantly between 200 and 50G magnets. Phase II average leg pain scores tended to be lower with 200 vs. 50G magnets (3.2+/-2.1 for 200G vs. 3.9+/-2.2 for 50G magnets [P=0.08]) after excluding one unblinded patient. The relative treatment effect of the 200G magnets appeared to increase throughout the five-week period. Although these data cannot rule out a chance effect, the positive trends suggest that larger, longer-duration, sham-controlled trials with 200G magnets be considered in patients with chronic lumbar radicular pain.

These data suggest that neuroendocrine function is not significantly altered in otherwise healthy men with chronic musculoskeletal pain and that prior reports of such hormonal abnormalities may have resulted from the confounding effects of coexistent illness or medication use.

Rett syndrome (RS) is a progressive neurological disorder of females, characterized by the early onset of autistic behavior, ataxia, and "handwringing" movements. The present magnetic resonance imaging study was undertaken with the purpose of investigating whether structural brain abnormalities of RS patients are similar to those recently reported in autism. The subject population consisted of eight patients and an equal number of age- and sex-matched controls. Area and shape measurements were taken at selected anatomical levels for the following structures: brain hemisphere, corpus callosum, midbrain, pons, lobules I-V and VI-VII of the cerebellum, and head of the caudate. Results revealed significant differences in area for the whole brain hemisphere (p < 0.05) and in both right and left caudate (p < 0.04). These morphological findings are different from those recently reported in autism and emphasize the involvement of the striatal system in RS.