Wernicke's encephalopathy following reduced food intake due to depressive disorders.

Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) is an unexpected common neurological disorder caused by thiamine deficiency often due to alcohol abuse, but WE-not alcohol related is also frequent. A prolonged reduction of food intake can cause WE. This condition can arise in depression disorders, especially in the early stages of these psychiatric syndromes.

Cluster headache patients are not affected by restless legs syndrome: an observational study.

Objective: To investigate the presence of Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) in Cluster Headache (CH) patients compared to headache-free controls.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional case-control study of CH patients presenting at tertiary headache centers over the period January-December 2008.

Patients And Participants: Fifty consecutive patients (6 women and 44 men) of mean age of 39.

Symptomatic cluster-like headache triggered by forehead lipoma: a case report and review of the literature.

We describe the case of a patient with symptomatic strictly unilateral paroxysmal headache mimicking cluster headache related to an ipsilateral forehead lipoma. Interestingly, immediately after the surgical excision of the lipoma pain attacks disappeared with no recurrence during a follow-up period of 18 months. Like other descriptions of cluster-like headaches secondary to extracranial lesions, this case report focuses on the hypothetical role of a peripheral trigger factor for trigeminal autonomic cephalgias (TACs).

Restless legs syndrome and primary headaches: a clinical study.

Based on recent data about the association between restless legs syndrome (RLS) and migraine, we performed an observational study on the occurrence of RLS in patients affected by primary headaches. Two hundred headache patients (149 women and 51 men) and 120 (90 women and 30 men) sex-and age-matched control subjects were included. In the headache group, migraine without aura (MO) was the most represented headache type (n=114), followed by the "mixed" group (n=40) with MO, migraine with aura (MA) and frequent episodic tension-type headache (ETTH) in various combinations, and by ETTH alone (n=22).

High prevalence of Dopaminergic Premonitory Symptoms in migraine patients with Restless Legs Syndrome: a pathogenetic link?

In order to assess the prevalence of Dopaminergic Premonitory Symptoms (DPS) in migraine patients with Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), we chose migraine patients from a large Italian clinical headache population previously investigated for an association between primary headaches and RLS. We evaluated a total sample of 164 patients with migraine, in particular 114 with migraine without aura (MO), 10 with migraine with aura (MA) and 40 with MO and MA in various combinations between them or with episodic tension-type headache (ETTH), defined as a "mixed group". About 20% of all migraine patients referred at least one of the following DPS: yawning, nausea, somnolence or food craving, confirming data already indicated in the literature.

ATP1A2 gene mutations are not present in two sisters with basilar-type migraine associated with menses.

Basilar-type migraine (BM) and hemiplegic migraine are clinically distinct subtypes of migraine with aura, however they do share clinical features and it is possible they may share genetic bases. In recent years, ATP1A2 and other gene mutations have been discovered in familial and sporadic hemiplegic migraine. More recently, an ATP1A2 mutation has been identified in an Italian family with BM.

Prodromes and the early phase of the migraine attack: therapeutic relevance.

A migraine attack is a multiphasic event. In some patients the initial phase of the attack is characterized by the presence of "prodromes" or "premonitory symptoms" which are not recognized by the patient as part of the attack. Premonitory symptoms are defined as "symptoms preceding and forewarning of a migraine attack by 2-48 hours, occurring before the aura in migraine with aura and before the onset of pain in migraine without aura".

Migraine disease: evolution and progression.

Migraine is a complex pathology and it should be regarded as a disease evolving during the lifetime along with other comorbid conditions. Migraine susceptibility may be unmasked by exogenous substances and the occurrence of migraine attacks may change following drugs given for therapeutical purposes. The evolution of migraine should be followed up because childhood migrainous manifestations may vary over the years and an earlier diagnosis may not apply later on.

Psychiatric disorders and pain location in unilateral migraineurs.

To explore the relationship between the side of pain during attacks and psychopathological features in strictly unilateral migraine, we recruited 35 patients affected by migraine with and/or without aura diagnosed according to the revised ICHD-II criteria. Seventeen patients had right side-locked pain (R-SUM), 11 had left side-locked (L-SUM) and 7 had side-shifting pain (SSM). Patients were administered the Hamilton Anxiety Scale, the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory-State Anxiety, the Beck Depression Inventory and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale.

Hypnic headache responsive to indomethacin: second Italian case.

We report a case of hypnic headache (HH) fulfilling the criteria proposed by the revised IHS headache classification and rapidly responsive to indomethacin. The patient is a 70-year-old housewife who presented with a 7-year history of strictly nocturnal headache attacks. The headache occurred every night with a frequency of 1 to 2 attacks occurring between 03.

An epidemiological study of migraine with aura in the San Severo general population: a pilot research project of cooperation between neurologists and general practitioners.

Objectives: (A) To define the lifetime prevalence of migraine with aura (MA) in patients recruited in general practices for an epidemiologic study by the University of Parma Headache Centre from the general population of San Severo, Italy, and (B) to assess the recognition of MA in general practice.

Methods: The study was conducted over a period of 5 consecutive months (January to May 2001) on patients aged 18-65, taken from the following general practice populations: (a) from the patient population of 4 general practitioners (GPs; 3,616 patients) and (b) from the patient population of 12 GPs (12,996 patients). The clinical diagnosis of MA was subsequently confirmed by a headache specialist.

Upper and lower cluster headache: clinical and pathogenetic observations in 608 patients.

Unlabelled: OBJECTIVE, BACKGROUND, AND METHODS: Ever since it was proposed by Ekbom and Kugelberg back in 1968 on the basis of the different location of head pain during attacks, the differentiation of cluster headache into an upper syndrome (US) and a lower syndrome (LS) has been regarded as a purely academic distinction. To evaluate whether this differentiation is indeed well founded and to understand its possible significance in the light of current pathogenetic knowledge, we rigorously applied Ekbom and Kugelberg's classification criteria to a sample of 608 patients with cluster headache (CH; 440 men and 168 women), including 483 with episodic CH, 69 with chronic CH, and 56 with CH periodicity undetermined.

Results: Of these patients, 278 could be classified as US sufferers and 330 as LS sufferers.

Transient visual disturbances during migraine without aura attacks.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and clinical features of transient visual disturbances (TVDs) during migraine without aura (MO) attacks and to point out any similarities with the disturbances listed among the diagnostic criteria of the International Headache Society (IHS) classification for migraine with aura (MA).

Methods: We studied a sample of 191 patients (145 women and 46 men) with MO and no other associated forms of primary headache who had been referred to the University of Parma Headache Centre between December 1, 1999 and December 1, 2000.

Results: A total of 165 patients reported that they had never experienced TVDs during their MO attacks.