Doctors should prescribe triptans for migraine patients who aren’t receiving relief from over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers, according to a new clinical guideline from the American College of Physicians. The recommendation is based on an evidence review showing that adding a triptan to either a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) or acetaminophen worked better to quell migraine pain and headache than OTC products alone, researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This combination therapy “resulted in a higher likelihood of sustained pain relief up to 48 hours after initial treatment and lower likelihood of using rescue medication at 24 hours,” compared with using a triptan alone, said the research team led by Dr. Carolyn Crandall, an internist with the UCLA School of Medicine. “In addition, combination therapy of a triptan and an NSAID probably results in a higher likelihood of achieving pain relief at 2 hours and sustained pain freedom at 48 hours,” researchers added. Triptan drugs treat migraines by changing the way blood circulates in the brain, and the way the brain processes pain signals, according to the Cleveland Clinic. “Using a triptan alone has historically been the first-line treatment of episodic migraine,” reads a summary for patients provided by the ACP. Episodic migraine occurs when a person has less than 15 headache days a month. By contrast, chronic migraine occurs when an individual has…  read on >  read on >

Removing the tonsils and adenoids can improve the sleep of kids with mild breathing problems that disturb their slumber, a new clinical trial reports. Children with sleep problems needed to see a doctor 32% less often and had a 48% reduction in medication use after surgical removal of their tonsils and adenoids (adenotonsillectomy), researchers reported in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The results mean that “for every 100 children, 125 encounters and 253 prescriptions can be avoided in the first year following surgery,” senior researcher Dr. Susan Redline, a professor of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a news release. As many as 17% of kids in the U.S. experience sleep-disordered breathing, in which snoring or full-blown sleep apnea causes them to wake repeatedly in the night, according to information cited in the news release. Taking out enlarged tonsils is standard treatment for moderate to severe cases, but the practice hadn’t been tested in kids with mild sleep-disturbed breathing. For this study, researchers analyzed data from a clinical trial involving 459 children with mild sleep-disordered breathing who were followed for a year. The kids were 3 to 12 and being treated at seven academic sleep centers across the U.S. During the trial, half the children had their tonsils and adenoids removed while the other half received supportive care without surgery that included education…  read on >  read on >

TikTok’s most popular videos on ADHD are as likely to misinform viewers as they are to provide helpful hints, a new study says. More than half the claims made in the 100 most-viewed TikTok videos about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not accurate, researchers reported in the journal PLOS One. Unfortunately, college students are more likely to rate videos containing bad information as accurate and recommend them to others, results show. “TikTok can be an incredible tool for raising awareness and reducing stigma, but it also has a downside,” lead researcher Vasileia Karasavva, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia, said in a news release. “Anecdotes and personal experiences are powerful, but when they lack context, they can lead to misunderstandings about ADHD and mental health in general,” Karasavva added. For the study, researchers identified the 100 most popular TikTok videos with the #ADHD hashtag, and had two clinical psychologists who are ADHD experts review the video’s claims. “The creators of the top 100 #ADHD TikTok videos regularly contributed such content; almost 80% had posted multiple videos discussing ADHD,” researchers wrote in their paper. The psychologists judged that only about 49% of the claims made in the TikTok videos were accurate based on diagnostic guidelines for ADHD, the study says. In their next step, researchers surveyed nearly 850 college undergrads about…  read on >  read on >

Where a person lives can influence their recovery from a traumatic brain injury, a new study says. Based on their neighborhood’s characteristics, people are less likely to receive home rehab visits or go to a rehab clinic following a concussion or other traumatic brain injury (TBI), researchers report in the March/April issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. The results indicate a “need to improve access to rehabilitation services for persons with TBI living in communities with greater social needs,” concluded the research team led by Monique Pappadis, vice chair of population health and health disparities with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 19,000 Medicare patients in Texas treated for a traumatic brain injury between 2014 and 2018. About 48% of the patients received home health rehabilitation services, and another 14% attended rehab at a clinic. The rest received no rehab at all. Results showed that: Patients in higher-income areas or areas with higher unemployment rates were less likely to receive home health visits. Rural patients and those in areas with lower insurance coverage were less likely to receive rehab at a clinic. Patients who lived near grocery stores were more likely to have home health visits. People in areas with severe housing problems were more likely to have outpatient visits. Overall, some…  read on >  read on >

Lower doses of a common antibiotic can curb hair loss caused by a rare skin condition, a new study says. The antibiotic doxycycline is commonly used to treat lymphocytic scarring alopecia, a condition in which the body’s immune cells target hair follicles, researchers said. But the relatively high doses of doxycycline used to prevent hair loss and scarring aren’t necessary, according to findings published March 18 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. That means these patients can receive effective treatment without the nausea, vomiting and rashes that can accompany high doses of doxycycline, researchers said. “Our findings suggest that physicians can prescribe lower doses of doxycycline to patients struggling with lymphocytic scarring alopecia without compromising the efficacy and anti-inflammatory benefit of the therapy,” co-lead researcher Carli Needle, a medical student at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, said in a news release. For the study, researchers analyzed medical data for more than 240 men and women treated for lymphocytic scarring alopecia between 2009 and 2023. About 27% of patients had been prescribed low doses of doxycycline, and 73% the traditional high doses, researchers said. Results showed that lower doxycycline doses of around 20 milligrams twice daily were equally as effective as higher doses of up to 100 milligrams twice daily. Specifically, there was no significant difference in scalp inflammation,…  read on >  read on >