Friday 8 January 2010

Medical News: Childhood Abuse Linked to Migraine - in Pediatrics, Domestic Violence from MedPage Today

This important study shows why getting it right during pregnancy and birth are so important. Babies and children must be protected. We have clear evidence of what helps to provide an environment where babies and children are cherished and protected. Childbearing women need to have their needs met, feel respected and valued. Women and their partners who are supported to bond with their babies during pregnancy and experience skin to skin with their babies at birth are less likely to abuse them. Babies who are breastfed are less likely to be abused. If we get it right at the beginning, imagine all the suffering we can eliminate.

Child Abuse Linked to Migraine
by Kristina Fiore, Staff writer, MedPage Today
Published: January 07, 2010
Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner Some

" Research suggests that there's an interaction between early maltreatment and chronic stress that leads to hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation



"Studies suggest that emotional abuse may have more lasting consequences, including psychiatric sequelae, than physical or sexual abuse," the researchers wrote. "Our finding that persons reporting emotional abuse had a significantly earlier age of migraine onset may have implications for its role in migraine pathophysiology."
For the third part of their study, the researchers looked at the relationship between childhood maltreatment and comorbid pain conditions in headache patients.
They found that 61% of patients reported at least one comorbid condition, while 18% reported two, and 13% reported three or more.
Prevalence of pain conditions was as follows:
  • Irritable bowel syndrome: 31%
  • Chronic fatigue syndrome: 16%
  • Fibromyalgia: 10%
  • Interstitial cystitis: 6.5%
  • Arthritis: 25%
  • Endometriosis (in women): 15%
  • Uterine fibroids (in women): 14%
They found that emotional abuse was associated with increased prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, and arthritis, while physical neglect was associated with arthritis.
In women, physical abuse was associated with endometriosis and physical neglect with uterine fibroids.
Medical News: Childhood Abuse Linked to Migraine - in Pediatrics, Domestic Violence from MedPage Today

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