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A study that sheds new light on a little-researched area of migraine headaches in the HIV population was based on Montgomery-area patients, and three of its four authors are health-care professionals working in Montgomery.
The study, published in the journal Headache, was part of a doctoral dissertation at the University of Mississippi by Montgomery psychologist Kale Kirkland, Ph.D.
Kirkland's research adviser at Ole Miss, Todd Smitherman, Ph.D., has established a lab at the school that focuses on headaches. Smitherman is also one of the co-authors of the study.
Kirkland and Smitherman realized that there was very little research published on headaches and HIV, and what research did exist was several years old and not consistent.
"We were hoping to, through this research, come up with what the typical HIV headache looks like," Kirkland said, and provide statistics on its type, prevalence and frequency.
The medications available today can effectively slow the progression of HIV, but most Americans with HIV do not have the disease under control, Smitherman was quoted as saying in a media release from Ole Miss' Department of Psychology.
A headache is one of the most common medical complaints of patients who are HIV-positive.
"Our study shows that patients with poorly controlled HIV/AIDS are most prone to suffer from frequent, severe migraines, at rates that far exceed those of the general population," Smitherman said.
The finding should be helpful for infectious disease physicians, Kirkland said, by hopefully preventing the need for costly diagnostic procedures.
When an HIV patient complains of chronic headaches, the physician often orders expensive procedures, such as MRIs and spinal taps, to rule out larger problems, such as meningitis or toxoplasmosis, Kirkland said.
"I think this research is going to be able to say that (such conditions are) really not that big of a problem," Kirkland said.
And he hopes that the study will create an opportunity for dialogue between physicians and HIV patients.