Posted by dougW (208.181.136.154) on November 20, 2000 at 12:53:32:
A new study reported in the September issue of Headache. An interesting thought, what happens to the chronic folks out there...permanent cognitive impairment????? (please..just kidding!!)
Doug Wright
Temporary Cognitive Impairment Accompanies Vascular Headaches
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WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Nov 14 - Disordered cerebral serotonergic projections appear to cause reversible cognitive decline during migraine and cluster headaches, according to results of a study conducted by researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. John Stirling Meyer and associates in Houston, Texas, administered the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), the Cognitive Capacity Screening Examination (CCSE) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale to almost 200 patients during up to 10 clinic visits over a 10-year period. The findings appear in the September issue of Headache.
Scores for CCSE and MMSE were significantly lower during current headaches, returning to pre-headache levels at later clinic visits in the absence of headache. Cognitive declines did not differ according to headache type — migraine with and without aura, cluster headache, and transformed migraine with chronic daily headache.
Dr. Meyer's group notes that cognitive decline was documented shortly after symptoms such as aura, severe pain, nausea, and sonophobia had subsided. Thus, "cognitive impairments appear to be identifiable as separate, additional disabilities apart from well-known complaints."
The cognitive impairments were relieved by sleep and self-administration of serotonin agonists.
Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores did not differ significantly between headache and non-headache visits, suggesting to the researchers that the observed cognitive declines were not related to depression.
Headache 2000;40:638-646.