{"id":73,"date":"2016-06-23T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T00:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/?p=73"},"modified":"2023-09-19T15:09:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T15:09:32","slug":"lingering-headaches-after-traumatic-brain-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/lingering-headaches-after-traumatic-brain-injuries\/","title":{"rendered":"Lingering Headaches After Traumatic Brain Injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>New research out of the University of Washington Medical Center suggests that many people who suffer traumatic brain injuries are plagued by headaches for years after the initial injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study revealed individuals who suffer a TBI have a high and persistent prevalence of headaches for at least five years after the head injury, and the majority reach migraine-like proportions. They added that TBI patients appear to be up to five times more likely to experience regular headaches than the average person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHeadaches after [TBI] should not be written off,\u201d Sylvia Lucas, MD, PhD, clinical professor at the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, and lead author of the study, commented in a release. \u201cThis study sheds light on education needed among primary care providers and other practitioners caring for those suffering from [TBI].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Lucas added that doctors and headache sufferers should be monitoring their headaches on a regular basis to see how they are responding to treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe frequency, intensity and impact on daily functioning should be recorded to better treat headaches. Suffering from intense headaches after an injury shouldn\u2019t be the only option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Headaches After TBI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings were presented at the American Headache Society\u2019s 58th Annual Scientific Meeting. Researchers collected data on headache prevalence, frequency and severity in the wake of a traumatic brain injury. Here\u2019s what they found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The most common cause of traumatic brain injury was motor vehicle crash, accounting for 55 percent of all TBIs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Participants had a steady prevalence of migraines&nbsp;over the course of the study. 38 percent reported new or worse headaches at baseline, 37 percent at three months, 33 percent at six months, 34 percent a one year and 35 percent at five years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Headache severity remained consistent throughout the study. On a scale of 0-10, headache pain registered at 5.5 at the outset and 5.7 at five years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Participants had a notable impairment, as measured by the Headache Impact Test, with a mean score of 57.1 at three months and 56.5 at five years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>At three months, half of the participants reported developing a headache several times a week or daily, which tapered off slightly to 36 percent by five years after injury.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Lucas said patients who suffer a TBI are dealing with headaches at a much more frequent rate than the average person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re supposed to be in the 6% range, and here we are in the 38% range.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said it\u2019s tough to really study the effects of migraines because unlike other scientific topics, animal testing is rather useless,&nbsp;\u201cbecause you can\u2019t ask them [how they\u2019re feeling].\u201d Instead, we\u2019re forced to rely solely on brain scans, patient interviews and previous studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Lucas concluded by saying the study was step 1 in an extended process to truly understand headaches and migraines after a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cStep 2 is going to be much more difficult, and that is: How can we treat these? We have no evidence-based medicines as of yet, so we\u2019re all treating these headaches by the seat of our pants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research out of the University of Washington Medical Center suggests that many people who suffer traumatic brain injuries are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidchangspine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}