Hi Hondoguy,
I have found a number of websites that have information on cyclic
vomiting syndrome, one symptom of which is "abdominal migraines", a
severe pain in the stomach.
Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Association (CVSA)
http://www.cvsaonline.org/
They have a lot of really good and trustworthy information. Here are
the first few paragraphs on their homepage:
"Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS) is an unexplained functional digestive
disorder characterized by recurrent, prolonged attacks of severe
nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain resulting in decreased quality of
life for both children & adults. Largely overlooked until about 10
years ago, millions of people worldwide suffer from this debilitating
syndrome, while the clinical community remains disturbingly unaware.
In fact, as doctors are increasingly educated about CVS, the number of
US patients diagnosed with this syndrome is climbing at a staggering
rate. Studies in the UK and Australia have shown that 2% of school age
children suffer from CVS. However, CVS can strike in infancy,
childhood or adulthood. In some patients CVS is frequent or severe
enough to be disabling. Because the condition is often not diagnosed
for a substantial amount of time, many sufferers live in isolation,
frustrated and desperate for help in controlling their symptoms.
"CVS isn't caused by "something you ate", it isn't repeated bouts of
the "flu" or other infections. The cause of CVS hasn't been isolated
yet, but there are qualified professionals who can accurately diagnose
and treat CVS. You and your family can find relief and gain control of
your life again.
"The Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Association is a volunteer organization
serving the needs of CVS patients worldwide, their families, and the
growing medical community studying CVS. CVSA has grown from a handful
of interested parents and professionals in 1993 into a network that
includes 37 medical advisors over 90 volunteers serving medical
professionals and patients in the U.S. & Canada as well as over in 30
other countries worldwide. We communicate with two other associations
(Australia & and UK).
"There is no cure for CVS, but at least four promising research
initiatives are underway ? a DNA-based project, one centered on the
stress-releasing response in the hypothalamus, one measuring autonomic
functions as markers of susceptibility to CVS, and a study in which
the brains of CVS sufferers are imaged while they are in episode to
pinpoint areas of disordered activity.
"Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome is sometimes called "abdominal migraine,"
"migraine variant," or sometimes inaccurately diagnosed as any of a
number of functional gastrointestinal or psychological disorders. CVS
is closely related to a host of vomiting illnesses and abdominal and
metabolic disorders. Any advances made in research for CVS may well
produce further valuable information that could lead to improvements
in diagnosis, treatment and even a cure for these assorted diseases."
These pages also contain useful information about CVS:
National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/cvs/index.htm
Mayo Clinic: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?objectid=22460C37-E4D1-4CA1-B74B13ACB4F02675
National Headache Foundation: Abdominal Migraine or Cyclic Vomiting?
http://www.headaches.org/consumer/educationalmodules/childrensheadache/agmigraineabdominal.html
International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders:
Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
http://www.aboutkidsgi.org/CVS.html
eMedicine: Migraine Variants
http://www.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic219.htm
(I believe this is one of the links in Pink's material, below)
eMedicine: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2910.htm
ANRED: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
http://www.anred.com/cvs.html
To find the above I first went to the National Library of Medicine's
MedlinePlus database of websites (www.medlineplus.gov), and searched
for "cyclical vomiting". When I found the CVSA page (a goldmine!), I
wandered around on their site looking for what pages they thought were
good links. The search "cyclic vomiting syndrome" (in parentheses to
force the phrase search) in Google gets good results, though I would
caution you to be careful about distinguishing between
scientific/medical authors and people with the disease or companies
trying to sell you something - all three have bias, which is why I
tend to turn to MedlinePlus first.
Finally, I also discovered that there's a CVS Webring, but I have not
evaluated the websites:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/4975/cvs_ring.html
These websites are geared to the general public, and are informative
articles or other web content. If you are looking for scholarly
articles about this disease, I suggest you look at the citations found
in PubMed MEDLINE:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=cyclic+vomiting+syndrome.
Note that PubMed only gives you the citation and (sometimes)
abstracts for articles - to get the full text you'll need to contact
your local academic/medical library. There are approximately 100
articles in the above search.
Please let me know if I can help you with more information on this syndrome!
Librariankt |
