January 21, 2004
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In this month's issue:
Patching your pain – lidocaine and migraine
Abdominal migraines – what is your stomach trying to tell you?
Say what?! You're not crazy!
Patching your pain – lidocaine and migraine
Lidocaine, sold under brand names such as Lidoderm, Emla and Lignocaine, has been used to kill pain for many years. It's been used as ointment, as a patch, and even intravenously. It's main use is for post-herpetic neuralgia, which is the lasting pain that some people get after getting shingles (shingles is a painful disease that shows up in people that have earlier contracted chicken pox). Lately lidocaine has gotten attention as a treatment for other types of pain, particularly migraine.Lidocaine given intravenously has been tried for migraine with limited results, but it's the patch that seems to be the most useful. The catch is that your actual migraine pain need to be in a place where you can put a patch. If your pain is under your hair, for example, the Lidoderm patch won't do you a lot of good unless you're ready to shave your head, a rather drastic step for most of us!
An article from the Diamond Headache Clinic discusses the use of lidocaine for migraine: The bandage may be worn up to 12 hours a day and may be useful as an adjunct, when patients do not want to take oral medication. There are minimal side effects, if any. It is non-sedating and may be worth trying in the patient who needs another alternative treatment for their head pain.
Finding alternatives like this one for killing migraine pain is important for people trying to get off of more harmful medications, or simply looking for something that's more helpful for them. Lidocaine patches may or may not require a prescription, depending on where in the world you live. Either way, talk to your doctor about the option.
Read more about post-herpetic neuralgia, and notice how many treatments are similar to migraine and cluster treatments.
Find lidoderm patches for a good price here
Abdominal migraines
What is your stomach trying to tell you?
Abdominal migraines are an unusual type of migraine that most often occur in children. This is a type of migraine with very little if any headache. The pain is in the abdomen. There may be stomach pain, vomiting, and even diarrhoea.Of course, there are a number of things that could cause these symptoms, abdominal migraine being one of the more rare causes. But if you or your child experiences similar symptoms more than once, and especially if there is a family history of migraine or other neurological diseases, it's worth looking into. Talk to your doctor right away if you see these symptoms, and mention to him any family history or past occurences.
Visit the National Headachache Foundation for more
Find child migraine resources at relieve-migraine-headache.com
Say what?! You're not crazy!
All the talk in migraine literature about neurology and neurological disorders is enough to make anyone antsy. I remember feeling a bit uncomfortable myself going to a headache clinic in a local hospital, placed in the middle of the neurology department. If migraine is a neurological disease, does that mean I'm crazy? No!Neurology is simply a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the nervous system. That doesn't mean you're nervous, it just means that migraine and other headaches are often related to the nerves in your body.
Often people just think of “neurotic”, which is an emotional problem. People who are neurotic often have to deal with strong emotions that don't relate to their present circumstances.
Although migraine and other headaches may be connected to other disorders, and although you can certainly have mental disabilities and migraine at the same time, migraine may very well be your only problem. Please take note, however, that mental health is still an important part of everyone's life, and anyone can have mental illness just the same as any other illness. So find solutions to the problems you have, and, mental illness or not, don't let anyone put you down for being in the neurology department.