A Historical Review of Headaches: Who First Described Them and When did This Occur?

BACKGROUND: Headache is as old as human history and has been able to report, and the first descriptions were found in Greece and Mesopotamia. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to know the date of the first description of ICHD-3 headaches, with their respective author. METHODS: We searched for articles that addressed the historical aspects of primary and secondary headaches and painful cranial neuropathies. RESULTS: Twenty-seven different headaches were analyzed according to the occurrence of their first description, with the respective author and country of origin. CONCLUSIONS: The knowledge of the first description of ICHD-3 headaches, with their respective author, showed us how and when the different headaches appeared over the years.

The study of headache in the 1950s in Latin America by Edgard Raffaelli Júnior (1930-2006).

The aim of this study was to review the life of Edgard Raffaelli Júnior (1930-2006) and to summarize his important contributions to the study of headaches. He was the first doctor to study headaches in Latin America, and for 50 years he advanced the understanding of headaches worldwide. He was born in São Paulo, Brazil, on March 2, 1930 and died on December 29, 2006. He founded the Brazilian Headache Society and was one of the organizers and founders of the International Headache Society. Following Raffaelli, many Latin American doctors have since been inspired to study headaches.

Headache research and medical practice in Brazil: an historical overview.

Since the creation of the Brazilian Headache Society in 1978, substantial developments have taken place in both research and clinical practice in the field of headache medicine in Brazil. The Society now has almost 300 members throughout the country, actively working to improve the health of the general population and, in particular, diagnose and treat headache disorders. In addition, in a few large cities, such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Ribeirão Preto, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre, headache specialists have come together to promote research projects and increase knowledge in the field through MSc, PhD, and postdoctoral programs. Furthermore, scientific journals have emerged and books have been published to record and disseminate Brazilian scientific production in headache medicine. In this narrative review, we will briefly describe some important aspects of headache medicine in Brazil from prehistoric times to the present day, discuss the origin of headache medicine as a specialty in Brazil, the principal publications dealing with headache disorders, the use of plants and other unconventional forms of treatment used by faith healers, the main training centers, and the research produced to date by Brazilians. In conclusion, in recent years enormous progress has been made in headache medicine in Brazil stimulating us to review and expand our role in an increasingly international scenario.

[Treatment of headaches among the Aborigines of Tierra de Fuego. A comparison with other anthropological studies]. / Tratamiento de las cefaleas entre los Aborígenes de Tierra de Fuego. Comparación con otros estudios antropológicos.

SUMMARY INTRODUCTION: Several different indigenous groups (Yamana, Selk'nam, Alacaluf, Haush) used to inhabit the Patagonian region of Tierra de Fuego, but are now extinct. AIM: To analyse the healing practices that these prehistoric aborigines used to treat headaches and to compare them with those observed in other anthropological studies. DEVELOPMENT: The article reviews the most important manuscripts from the end of the 19th century written by anthropologists and missionaries who were in contact with these peoples (Bridges, Hyades, Gusinde). The Yamana, or 'canoero' Indians, lived in the coastal areas and ate mostly seals and shellfish. The Selk'nam were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in the northern part of the Isla Grande. The Yekamush were the Yamana healers. The chief palliative treatments for pain were fasting, drinking cold water and the application of localised heat and massages. Headaches were one of the most prevalent conditions among the Yamana. Treatment for headaches consisted in hitting the patient's head with prickly chaura (Pernettya mucronata) leaves, which produces a small amount of bleeding, or the use of fresh nettle leaves, which were held in place with a headband. The Selk'nam used the term kwaketan to refer to the feeling of sadness with pain, while the term kwake meant 'illness'. Other common ways of treating headaches included ritual ceremonies with chanting, the detection of painful points, and the absorption and expulsion of the kwake. CONCLUSIONS: Headaches were one of the most frequent neurological pathologies among these prehistoric Fuegian aborigines, in line with the observations made in other transcultural studies conducted on present-day native cultures.

Anne Frank's headache.

There are a significant number of famous people who suffered from frequent headaches during their lifetime while also exerting an influence of some kind on politics or the course of history. One such person was Anneliese Marie Frank, the German-born Jewish teenager better known as Anne Frank, who was forced into hiding during World War II. When she turned 13, she received a diary as a present, named it 'Kitty' and started to record her experiences and feelings. She kept the diary during her period in hiding, describing her daily life, including the feeling of isolation, her fear of being discovered, her admiration for her father and her opinion about women's role in society, as well as the discovery of her own sexuality. She sometimes reported a headache that disturbed her tremendously. The 'bad' to 'terrifying' and 'pounding' headache attacks, which were accompanied by vomiting and during which she felt like screaming to be left alone, matched the International Headache Society criteria for probable migraine, whereas the 'more frequent headaches' described by Anne's father are more likely to have been tension-type headaches than headaches secondary to ocular or other disorders.

Cefaléia em crianças: revisäo / Headache in children: review

Esta revisäo permite uma melhor compreensäo desse assunto, visando a obter de modo correto o diagnóstico, elucidando aspectos clínicos e laboratóriais