Headache Relief is a new iPhone app which I developed to help patients better manage their headaches. The main feature of the app is a headache diary. A summary of all your diary entries can be emailed to yourself or your doctor in an Excel spreadsheet form. I find that patients who keep a diary benefit from it in many ways. The diary makes it easier to figure out what may be causing your headaches, how well the treatment works, and allows you to better control your headaches. The potential triggers that are recorded in the diary include stress, menstrual cycle, food, sleep, and other. Weather can be a major contributor and the three most common weather-related triggers are temperature, humidity and barometric pressure. A unique (and very neat) feature of this app is that if you to enter your zip code these three weather parameters will be downloaded into your diary. The app also contains an e-book with a wealth of information on headaches, natural and pharmacological therapies. And the price is right – it’s free. Please let me know what you think or better still, post your evaluations on the iTunes store.
Read MoreHeadache diary plays an important role in the management of headache patients. Drs. McKenzie and Cutrer from the Mayo Clinic compare patient recall of migraine headache frequency and severity over 4 weeks prior to a return visit as reported in a questionnaire vs a daily diary. Here are some of their findings “Many therapeutic decisions in the management of migraine patients are based on patient recall of response to treatment. As consistent completion of a daily headache diary is problematic, we have assessed the reliability of patient recall in a 1-time questionnaire. 209 patients completed a questionnaire and also maintained a daily diary over the 4-week period. RESULTS: Headache frequency over the previous 4 weeks as reported in interval questionnaires (14.7) was not different from that documented in diaries (15.1), P = .056. However, reported average headache severity on a 0 to 3 scale as reported in the questionnaire (1.84) was worse than that documented in the diaries (1.63), P < .001. CONCLUSIONS: In the management of individual patients, the daily diary is still preferable when available. Aggregate assessment of headache frequency in groups of patients based on recall of the prior 4 weeks is equally as reliable as a diary. Headache severity reported in questionnaires tends to be greater than that documented in daily diaries and may be less reliable. “
Read More
Recent Comments