Robbins Headache Clinic Blog
Sunscreen Updates
Sunscreen sales are fast approaching $1 billion dollars in the U.S. yet skin cancer rates continue to climb, and melanoma diagnoses have risen almost 2% a year since 2000. Some experts believe people don't use sunscreen appropriately, or don't reapply it often enough....
Social Stigma of Migraines – Worse Than Epilepsy?
A groundbreaking study by William B. Young, MD, a neurologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's Headache Center, found that patients with migraine experience social stigma much like people who have epilepsy. The study, published in January in the online...
“An Über-Caregiver Takes a Break”
Mary Pipher, is the author of the bestselling book Reviving Ophelia and, most recently, The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture. She recently wrote an article for More magazine, describing a challenging time in her life when a physical ailment...
Medicine Expiration Dates
Most people may find at least one or two "vintage" medications in their medicine cabinet - medicines that have surpassed their expiration dates. Maybe you have wondered whether some of your medications are still safe and or potent. A 2012 Archives of Internal...
Depression Raises Stroke Risk in Younger Women
While depression is known to increase the risk for stroke, a new study suggests the link is even greater in younger women. Researchers in Australia studied over 10,000 women with an average age of 52, with no history of stroke. They found that about 24% were depressed...
Study Looks at Link Between Mental Stress and the Heart
Can antidepressants help some people with heart disease better deal with stress? Researchers at Duke University studied people with heart disease and how they reacted when faced with challenging social and mental tests. Participants who were taking an antidepressant...
“Mapping the Food Genome”
A massive project, led by professor Barry Popkin at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health is creating a huge map of what foods Americans are buying and eating. Remarkably, the database has the ability to sort one product into what it really is -...
Psychiatry’s Diagnostic Manual Gets an Update
This month marks the release of the DSM-5, the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Associations's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Changes in the manual will affect millions of Americans - most insurance providers require a DSM diagnosis as...
Another “Perk” for Drinking Coffee – Lower Risk of Stroke in Women
"Given that coffee is one of the most popular beverages consumed worldwide, even small health effects of substances in coffee may have large public health consequences," says Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Larsson and her colleagues...
FDA Approves Generic Zomig and Zomig-ZMT Tablets
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first generic versions of Zomig and Zomig-ZMT (orally disintegrating tablets). Zomig is in the class of drugs called triptans, and is indicated for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults....