Explore the vast range of titles available.

Purpose of Review This review will consider forms of atypical facial and head pain in children and adolescents. A brief and general overview of typical head and facial pains and treatments will be offered. Moreover, atypical head and face pain will be discussed with treatment options. Recent Findings The most recent literature including case reports will be evaluated; possible pathophysiological mechanisms, resulting disabilities, and family and social impact will be discussed. Summary General indications for pharmacological treatment will be reviewed, when needed in more disabling cases. Also, non-pharmacological treatments that are especially suitable for this category of patients will be illustrated and discussed.

Purpose of Review In this short review, the most common non-invasive neuromodulatory techniques will be described, along with their advantages and disadvantages and their application in headache. Available preventive treatments can be unhelpful or may have unpleasant side effects; moreover, the rate of response to preventive drugs does not exceed 50%, lower in chronic migraine; alternative options would be welcome. Though the concept of neuromodulation was originally developed with invasive methods, newer non-invasive techniques are appearing. Recent Findings The novel neuromodulatory techniques have been developed with encouraging results: compared with traditional pharmacotherapy, advantages of non-invasive neuromodulation include reduced incidence of adverse effects, improved adherence, and safety and ease of use. The results are encouraging for acute or preventive treatment of different kinds of headache. Summary A variety of neuromodulatory approaches is expanding fastly and has opened new possibilities for treatment of patients suffering from many forms of headache, especially those who have failed traditional pharmacotherapy. The non-invasive treatments can be seen as supplementing traditional management in refractory patients. Current study results are encouraging but preliminary and larger and more rigorous trials are needed to clarify benefit and mode of action.

Purpose of Review The aim is twofold. First, to give an insight on the role exerted by different classes of drugs in favouring migraine chronification. Second, to explore the relationship between type and amount of overused medications and history of previous withdrawal treatment and of frequent relapses. Recent Findings All drug classes were found to favour migraine chronification. No data are available for the association with relapses into CM-MOH. Our clinical study shows that patients who underwent previous withdrawal treatments were more likely to be overusers of multiple drug classes and overuse higher amounts of symptomatic medications, particularly, indomethacin, eletriptan and tramadol. Frequent relapsers were more likely to be overusers of opioids or ergotamine and caffeine derivates or of multiple classes, particularly acetylsalicylic acid and ergotamine/caffeine derivates. Summary The joint results our review and clinical study do not seem to support the idea that MOH is drug-specific: rather, it points out that all drug classes may induce migraine chronification. Those drugs which are at higher risk of overuse are among those preferred by the “worst” patients, i.e. those who needed one or more withdrawal treatments for MOH. Our results reinforce the clinical impression that patients with CM and MOH, and particularly the most difficult to treat for their poor response to withdrawal treatments, are characterised by a particular drive towards the consumption of “whatever is likely to be perceived to provide some relief”, despite these drugs that are perceived as “more powerful”, are often indicated as second- or third-line medications.

Background Chronic Migraine (CM) is a disabling condition, worsened when associated with Medication Overuse (MO). Mindfulness is an emerging technique, effective in different pain conditions, but it has yet to be explored for CM-MO. We report the results of a study assessing a one-year course of patients’ status, with the hypothesis that the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based approach would be similar to that of conventional prophylactic treatments. Methods Patients with CM-MO (code 1.3 and 8.2 of the International Classification of Headache Disorders-3Beta) completed a withdrawal program in a day hospital setting. After withdrawal, patients were either treated with Prophylactic Medications (Med-Group), or participated in a Mindfulness-based Training (MT-Group). MT consisted of 6 weekly sessions of guided mindfulness, with patients invited to practice 7–10 min per day. Headache diaries, the headache impact test (HIT-6), the migraine disability assessment (MIDAS), state and trait anxiety (STAI Y1-Y2), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered before withdrawal and at each follow-up (3, 6, 12 after withdrawal) to patients from both groups. Outcome variables were analyzed in separate two-way mixed ANOVAs (Group: Mindfulness vs. Pharmacology x Time: Baseline, 3-, 6-, vs. 12-month follow-up). Results A total of 44 patients participated in the study, with the average age being 44.5, average headache frequency/month was 20.5, and average monthly medication intake was 18.4 pills. Data revealed a similar improvement over time in both groups for Headache Frequency (approximately 6–8 days reduction), use of Medication (approximately 7 intakes reduction), MIDAS, HIT-6 (but only for the MED-Group), and BDI; no changes on state and trait anxiety were found. Both groups revealed significant and equivalent improvement with respect to what has become a classical endpoint in this area of research, i.e. 50% or more reduction of headaches compared to baseline, and the majority of patients in each condition no longer satisfied current criteria for CM. Conclusions Taken as a whole, our results suggest that the longitudinal course of patients in the MT-Group, that were not prescribed medical prophylaxis, was substantially similar to that of patients who were administered medical prophylaxis.

Chronic migraine (CM) is a disabling condition arising from a complex mixture of interconnected biological, psychological and social factors, and is often associated with medication overuse (MO). Mindfulness is emerging as a helpful treatment for pain, and one study showed that the longitudinal 12 months’ course of CM-MO patients that attended mindfulness-based treatment alone was similar to that of patients receiving medical prophylaxis alone; in this study, we describe the course of biomarkers of inflammation. Our results provide initial evidence of sustained similar effects on reduced concentration of biomarkers of inflammation, although not sizeable enough to reach statistical significance. Whether more intensive treatment and/or larger samples would lead to greater changes is unknown, but these encouraging preliminary findings suggest further research is warranted.