Posted by Todd (64.34.202.197) on October 17, 2000 at 22:48:39:
In Reply to: Candida posted by DJ on October 17, 2000 at 19:08:29:
In 1995, the Italian Cooperative Study Group on the Epidemiology of Cluster Headache (ICECH) conducted a "Case Control study on the epidemiology of cluster headache". Nine Italian headache centers participated, and 120 individuals who met IHS code 3.1 classification for CH were included, 96 males, 24 females. 103 were episodic, 6 were chronic unremitting from onset and 11 were chronic evolved from episodic.
Each was asked to name 5 acquaintences or friends, but NOT family members. From each set of 5, 1 was randomly chosen as a control. The control group matched the CH group in all significant factors.
All 240 were interviewed by doctors who did not know the purpose of the study. The appropriate tests were administered, along with the MMPI and measurements of cranial and some torsal dimensions (to study the old 'tall men with leonine features' deal).
The following were found to have NO statistical coorelation to CH:
alcohol intake
coffee intake
pregnancy
snoring
head trauma with loss of conciousness
hypertension
gastritis
peptic ulcer
allergic skin diseases
respiratory allergic diseases
herpes zoster
No other medical conditions showed up in enough cases of either control or CH to even be included in the study.
The MMPI showed that CH'rs as a group have very normal personality profiles.
The physical measurements also conformed to the control group.
The only areas in which CH deviated from the control group were in cigarette smoking, head trauma and positive family history of headache. The authors caution that, since head trauma was based on recall, an unwitting bias may exist and thus this requires more study.
For the technical, the study achieved a 90% power with a 95% confidence interval for detecting an increase in frequency of 10% among cases of a given risk factor. The McNemar x2 test was used to compare the significance of differences between cases and controls.