Migraine Press Releases

Women with migraines did not appear to experience a decline in cognitive ability over time compared to those who didn’t have them, according to a nine-year follow up study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Like all machines, ion channels – the machines that power nerve cell firing and muscle contraction – operate less efficiently in the cold. That poses a challenge for animals that live in icy environments. A new study shows that octopi in polar climates solve the problem by modifying their ion channels through a process called RNA editing.

NIH announced the members of the new Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee chaired by NINDS Director Story Landis, Ph.D. The IPRCC includes researchers, members of nonprofit public advocacy organizations, and representatives from 7 federal agencies that deal with pain research and patient care.

Most migraine sufferers know that light can intensify headache pain. A new study of blind patients with migraine may help explain why. The finding ultimately may lead to new approaches for calming severe light-induced headaches.

When a child is rushed to the emergency room with an acute headache, the goal for both parents and doctors is to determine if a serious neurological condition might be causing the pain. One option is to perform a computed tomography (CT) scan to aid diagnosis. But a new study offers evidence that CT scans are of little benefit for diagnosing headache in young children who have normal neurological exams and no history of serious problems.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has appointed four new members to its major advisory panel, the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council. The NINDS, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the nation's primary supporter of basic, translational, and clinical research on the brain and nervous system. NINDS Director Story Landis, Ph.D., formally introduced the new members, who will serve through July 2012, at the Council's September 18, meeting.

Migraine headaches are a source of disabling pain for millions of people.  Now, a study in mice suggests that these headaches may be linked to tiny areas of stroke-like brain damage.  The findings suggest that treatment to prevent migraines may also prevent longer-term cognitive problems.

For years, physicians have noticed surprising similarities in the factors that seem to trigger attacks in such episodic neurological disorders as migraine and dyskinesia. Common triggers include psychological stress, caffeine or alcohol ingestion, fatigue, hormonal fluctuations and exercise. A new study shows that a mouse model can be used to investigate how these substances and environmental factors trigger symptomatic attacks. The researchers also identified two drugs that can prevent attacks of such disorders in mice.

Pain is an extremely disabling condition leading to an annual cost of $65 billion lost in work productivity and 4 billion work days. It also accounts for 40 million visits per year to physicians for "new" pain and $3 billion in sales each year of over-the-counter analgesics. Scientists studying animal models with support from the National Institutes of Health have found that a chemical, called neurokinin A, may be responsible for the body's response to moderate-to-intense pain. This finding, reported in the March 26, 1998, issue of Nature, may eventually lead to new treatments for pain.