Vickie Karian is a nurse practitioner and author of Getting Ahead of Pediatric Headaches: A comprehensive guide for nurse practitioners to manage headaches in children and adolescents.

Insurance struggles in pediatric headache care

Conditions and Diseases
September 11, 2023

Most of the time, I enjoy my job as a pediatric nurse practitioner working with chronic headache and pain patients. I enjoy the relationships with the families, figuring out what can help manage the headaches and life issues best to allow optimal functioning. I enjoy performing certain procedures, like Botox for chronic migraines or injection procedures for my patients, which very often improve their headache profile. I can even find …

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Insurance struggles in pediatric headache care

How the pandemic affects children and teens with headaches and migraines

Conditions and Diseases
October 20, 2020

Children and teens with headaches and migraines have been affected in a variety of ways by these pandemic times. Thinking back, there has been a difference between last spring and this fall and the effect on my patients, particularly in the school environment.

In the early days last Spring, many of my patients who had been having a hard time getting to school every day due to …

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How the pandemic affects children and teens with headaches and migraines

How to help your children manage migraines

Conditions and Diseases
May 22, 2019

Stress!

It is a fact of life for all human beings. Stress is a normal reaction — psychologic and physiologic — to the everyday demands of life. When your brain perceives a threat, the body reacts with a fight-or-flight response, releasing hormones, increasing heart rate, and blood pressure. When the situation is over, your body returns to a normal, calm state. But sometimes, in our overly-stimulated world, the stress response button …

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How to help your children manage migraines