Robbins Headache Clinic Blog
Review of “Is Depression Inherited?”
Recently, Daphne Merkin wrote an article called "Is Depression Inherited?" for the New York Times. She writes that children who are genetically prone towards depression may be able to not only stave it off, but prevent it if they are raised in a safe and nurturing...
Clinical Pearls for Treating Headache Patients, Continued
While there is the official definition of pain, we prefer "pain is what the patient says it is, and it's as bad as the patient says it is." Being aware that there are cultural and ethnic differences in the perception and experience of pain can aid treatment. Pain...
Quiet Please-Patient Sleeping!
A recent New York Times article reports on how noise in hospitals can affect a patient's recovery. This is one area that has been somewhat overlooked by hospital staff, but has been a constant complaint of patients. The complaints have been largely ignored by...
The Case for Mindful Eating and Walking and Sleeping
Meditation for many of us can conjure up an image of sitting cross-legged with eyes closed, focusing on the moment. Can we apply the concept of meditation to our everyday lives? Yes, it is possible. When we slow down we can notice the patterns of our mind, which can...
Clinical Pearls for Treating Headache Patients
Patients with chronic daily headache may view the headache situation in black and white terms. They will come back for a return visit and state, "Well, I still have a headache everyday." They need to accept that if we have gone from moderate-to-severe headaches (7 on...
Medications from Canada
There is a bill that, I believe, is pending from Congress, which would make it more difficult to obtain meds from Canada, for people in the US. US folks obtaining meds from Canada has a long long history, as in 1900 people in the US were importing aspirin(from the...
New Rules on Opioids
The REMS program is a program that was instituted for one type of opioid; it is paperwork, to be filled out by the patient and physician; now, it looks as if all long-acting opioids will need this REMS paperwork. There are pluses and minuses to this; the plus is...
FDA approves Ingestible Sensor
The FDA has just approved an ingestible sensor that will be able to track if patients are taking their medication as prescribed, and at the right time. The maker, Proteus Digital Health, sees this "as a start of an era where digital medicine shifts the care paradigm"....
Olympic Fever Starts Today – How to Safeguard Your Sleep
The opening ceremonies for the Olympics are tonight, beginning at 9pm London time, and 4pm central time. Due to the time differences between the states and London, many events will be happening while we are asleep. People on the east coast may be setting their alarms...
Migraine-Related Nausea Increases Patients’ Pain
A large study was recently presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology with findings indicating that headache-related nausea occurred in approximately 80% of people with migraines in the US population. According to Richard B.Lipton, MD,...