Seymour Diamond, MD

December 31, 2006

A 45-year-old man has a history of migraine that started shortly after puberty. The headaches became more frequent andsevere 3 years ago, when the patient was promoted from metal worker to shift boss.

October 01, 2006

A 37-year-old woman complains of frequent, severe headaches. She describes the pain as a pressure-like feeling that is usually located at the top of her head and occasionally spreads to one of her temples; she rates its intensity as 9 on a 10-point visual analog scale. The pain becomes throbbing when she tries to engage in any kind of physical activity.

September 01, 2006

The patient is a 47-year-old white woman with frequent, intensely painful unilateral or bilateral headaches that occur behind her left eye or temporal area. These headaches cause throbbing pain that lasts about 40 to 50 minutes: the patient rates the pain severity as a 7 or 8 on a 10-point visual analog scale.

June 01, 2006

A 15-year-old boy complains of moderate to severe headaches that occur daily and usually last all day; the pain typically worsens toward the end of the day. How will you help this patient?

April 15, 2006

A 79-year-old woman with a 37-year history of type 2 diabetes mellitus complains of head pain that began more thana month ago and is localized to the left frontotemporal region. She characterizes the pain as constant and burning, with minimalfluctuations in intensity. The pain does not increase with any particular activity but is quite disabling; it has causedemotional lability and insomnia. She denies nausea, visual disturbances, weakness of the extremities, dizziness, or tinnitus.Her appetite is depressed; she has experienced some weight loss.

March 02, 2006

A 36-year-old man with a 15-year history of episodic migraine presents to the emergency department (ED) at 5 AM witha right-sided throbbing headache of 4 hours' duration. The headache awakened him, which is typical of his more severemigraine attacks. Unfortunately, the patient forgot to refill his prescription for pain medication and did not "catch" thisheadache in time. He took an over-the-counter combination of aspirin and caffeine, which seemed to help for about 60minutes, but the headache has returned full force. He has vomited twice-another characteristic typical of his migraineattacks

February 01, 2006

A neurologic deficit caused by a transient ischemic attack should last less than 24 hours. This woman presented with signs of paresis that had persisted for 36 hours, thus ruling out transient ischemic attack.

October 01, 2005

A 24-year-old woman complains of a severe, throbbing headache that is present when she is upright and is relieved when she lies down. When she is upright, she also experiences dizziness, blurred vision, light sensitivity, nausea, and occasional diplopia.

April 02, 2004

A 39-year-old man complains of severe daily headaches that he describes as throbbing and "burning," with a sensationof pressure. He rates the severity of his pain as 8 to 10 on a 10-point visual analog scale (VAS) in which 10 isthe most severe. The mean duration of the headaches is 12 hours, and the mean frequency is 5 days per week. Betweenthe episodes of severe headache, he has constant "minor" headaches that are not as severe (mean severity, 3 to 5 on a10-point VAS). Within the past 5 months, he has never been totally free of headache.

September 01, 2003

The patient is a 56-year-old man who presents with daily headaches that occurbehind the right eye, right temple, and occasionally on the right side of theforehead. He has never experienced this type of headache on the left side. Hedescribes the pain as “stabbing,” “throbbing,” and occasionally “burning.”He rates the intensity of the pain a 7 on a 10-point visual analog scale onwhich 10 is the most severe.