The Unmet Challenge of Diagnosing and Treating Photophobia.

Background: Although patients with abnormal light sensitivity may present to an ophthalmologist or optometrist for the evaluation of photophobia, there are no previous reviews of the most common causes of this symptom.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients who presented to our eye center between 2001 and 2009 primarily for the evaluation of photophobia. We recorded demographics, ocular examination findings, and diagnoses of these patients.

New and future migraine therapy.

Modern neuroscience advanced our understanding of putative migraine mechanisms, which led to improved therapeutics. Indeed, mechanism-based acute migraine therapy gained steam in the early 1990s after the introduction of the triptans (5-HT1B,D agonists). Post-triptans, novel targets such as calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonists, inhibitors of excitatory glutamatergic receptors, and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitors are leading the pack in this exploding field of discovery research.

Prophylactic pharmacotherapy for migraine headaches.

Migraine therapeutics are pharmacological, including acute and preventive, nonpharmacological and/or both. Preventive pharmacological strategies serendipitously were discovered to be effective and include drugs from various pharmacological classes (e.g.

Partial dopamine loss enhances activated caspase-3 activity: differential outcomes in striatal projection systems.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a basal ganglia disorder. Motor symptoms develop insidiously following substantial neurodegeneration of the dopamine (DA) neurons in the nigrostriatal system and produce slowed, infrequent movements, postural instability, and gait changes. A thorough understanding of neurochemical compensations occurring in the striatum during early stages of PD is crucial in identifying components that are altered initially as the DA is depleted.

Future pharmacologic targets for acute and preventive treatments of migraine.

Advances in investigative research (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging) have made it possible to study putative migraine processes and better understand the pathophysiology of the disorder.