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Dialysis may induce severe headache as a result of a large amount of water and electrolyte shifts. It is important to recognize it because it can be a great problem to the patient and changing dialysis parameters or methods can prevent it. In this study we investigated the frequency and clinical characteristics of headaches occurring during haemodialysis (HD). Thirty female and 33 male patients with chronic renal failure on regular dialysis for at least 6 months in the HD unit of the Internal Medicine Department from 1996 to 2000 participated in the study. The dialysis solution contained acetate in 35 patients and bicarbonate in 28 patients. In all patients capillary dialysers and Cuprophan membranes were used and every session of dialysis lasted 4 h. All patients received the same questionnaire and they were visited randomly. Dialysis headache (DH) diagnosis was made according to the criteria of the International Headache Society. Patients with primary headache and under drug treatment during HD, which can cause headache, were excluded from the study. The frequency of DH, its relation to gender, age, dialysis technique and parameters and its features were investigated. DH was detected in 48% (n = 30) of the study group. Compared with dialysis solutions, no difference was found between patients with and without DH. The difference in the pre- and post-dialysis value of urea in patients with DH was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Patients with DH showed significantly higher mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure predialysis values in comparison with patients without DH (systolic, P < 0.001; diastolic, P < 0.01), whereas post-treatment values did not differ between the two groups. Fronto-temporal location, moderate severity, throbbing quality and short duration (<4 h) were the most prevalent features of DH in patients.

We investigated the type and frequency of interictal primary headache and peri-ictal headache in 109 patients with partial-onset and 26 patients with generalized onset seizures in this study. Interictal headaches were present in 50 (40.7%) of 135 patients. Comparing the interictal headache on the basis of seizure type, we couldn't find any significant difference between the seizure groups. Seventy-nine (58.51%) patients had peri-ictal headache. Eleven of these patients had pre-ictal headache (PriH), three of all had ictal headache and, 56 of these had post-ictal headache (PoiH). PriH and PoiH were more frequently encountered before and after secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) compared to other seizure groups. The type of pain in PoiH was 'throbbing' in complex partial seizures and 'steady' in GTCS.

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Patients admitted to movement disorders outpatient unit at a university hospital between January 2002 and June 2007 were screened for psychogenic movement disorders (PMDs). Out of 1,743 patients, 49 patients (2.8%), including four children, were diagnosed to have PMDs. Women to men ratio was 34/15. The mean age and the age-at-onset were 41 +/- 17 years and 36 +/- 15 years in the adult group, and 10 +/- 2 and 9 +/- 2 years in children. Among the whole group, 44% had tremor, 24% dystonia, 12% pure gait disorders, 8% parkinsonism, 6% chorea-ballism, and 4% tic disorder. PMD developed acutely in 85% of patients, and distractibility was observed in 83%. Of the patients, 81% met the criteria for clinically established PMD, whereas 16% for documented and 2% for probable PMD. Although our data was obtained from a different culture, our results showed that hospital-based frequency and phenomenological features between our PMD group and previously reported ones are similar.