The “Headwise Project” / This Website (Porillion)

(This post is now out of date, and has been blanked.)

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Announcing the Headwise Project

Following on from the polling, I can now announce what I want to do with this website. I’m calling this the “Headwise Project”.

• I will gradually be moving this website to a new dedicated home at http://www.headwise.org. This follows poll results in which you said you would take the site more seriously with a dedicated address.
• The new design for the site will be accessibility and design compliant. This follows poll results in which you said you found this site’s (old) design hard to read.
• The new design will also be fully standardised – so you can quickly and easily find the information you are looking for.
• The new site also allows future options for things such as support forums.
• I am intending to expand the site’s coverage beyond migraine, persistent aura and visualisation problems. Following on from my experience I want to encourage “patient experts” to write on other head and brain illness related topics. I’m also hopeful that in time Headwise can encourage occasional help from medical experts too.

If you have any ideas on how to improve this service, I’d be very happy to hear from you. As always, you can e-mail me or comment to this post (or the sticky post).

Open Journal Article: Diagnosing migraine in research and clinical settings: The validation of the Structured Migraine Interview (SMI)

Abstract (provisional):

Background
Migraine is a common disorder that is highly co-morbid with psychopathological conditions such as depression and anxiety. Despite the extensive research and availability of treatment, migraine remains under-recognised and undertreated. The aim of this study was to design a short and practical screening tool to identify migraine for clinical and research purposes.

Methods

The structured migraine interview (SMI) based on the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD) criteria was used in a clinical setting of headache sufferers and compared to clinical diagnosis by headache specialist. In addition to the validating characteristics of the interview different methods of administration were also tested.
Results

The SMI has high sensitivity (0.87) and modest specificity (0.58) when compared to headache specialist’s clinical diagnosis.
Conclusions

Our study demonstrated that a structured interview based on the ICHD criteria is a useful and valid tool to identify migraine in research settings and to a limited extent in clinical settings, and could be used in studies on large samples where clinical interviews are less practical.

You can read the full article here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2377-10-7.pdf

Open Journal Article: A migraine variant with abdominal colic and Alice in wonderland syndrome: a case report and review

Abstract:

: Abdominal migraine is a commonly described migraine variant in children and young adults, but associations with Alice in Wonderland syndrome and lilliputian hallucinations are exceptional.
Case presentation

A 20 years-old male experienced frequent and prolonged attacks of abdominal colic associated with autonomic manifestations started at the age of ten. At the age of 17, he additionally described prolonged attacks ([greater than or equal to] 7 days) of distortions of shape, size or position of objects or subjects. He said: Quite suddenly, objects appear small and distant (teliopsia) or large and close (peliopsia). I feel as I am getting shorter and smaller (shrinking) and also the size of persons are not longer than my index finger (a lilliputian proportion). Sometimes I see the blind in the window or the television getting up and down, or my leg or arm is swinging. I may hear the voices of people quite loud and close or faint and far. Occasionally, I experience attacks of migrainous headache associated with eye redness, flashes of lights and a feeling of giddiness. I am always conscious to the intangible changes in myself and my environment. There is a strong family history of common migraine. Clinical examination, brain-MRI and EEG were normal. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and evoked potentials revealed enhanced cortical excitability in multiple brain regions. Treatment with valproate resulted in marked improvement of all clinical and neurophysiological abnormalities. Conclusions The association between the two migraine variants (abdominal migraine and Alice in Wonderland Syndrome) might have clinical, pathophysiological and management implications. I think this is the first description in the literature.

You can read the full article here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2377-10-2.pdf