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A recent article in The New York Times debunks the theory that all children are intrinsically good until influenced otherwise. The notion that they are mere products of their environment, and if there is chronic bad behavior, there must be a parent behind it is being challenged. Dr. Richard A Friedman, a professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan, states, “for better or worse, parents have limited power to influence their children. They should not be so fast to take all the blame-or credit-for everything that their children become. The fact remains that perfectly decent parents can produce toxic children”.

Interestingly, little has been written about the paradox of good parents with toxic children. Dr. Friedman continues that we “marvel at the resilient child who survives the most toxic parents and home environment and goes on to a life of success. Yet the converse–the notion that some children might be the bad seeds of more or less decent parents–is hard to take”. The reality is that character traits, like all human behavior, have hard-wired and genetic components that cannot be molded entirely by the best environment, let alone the best psychotherapists. Dr. Theodore Shapiro, a child psychiatrist at Weil concurs; “The era of ‘there are no bad children, only bad parents’ is gone.”

Cervicogenic headache is technically a headache by definition yet its origin is in the neck Frequently, it is combined with neck pain to a varying degree and occasionally, even arm pain of a non-radicular type.

An article in Headache Quarterly by Doctor Otto Sjaastad, Professor Emeritus of Neurology, Trondheim, Norway, discusses terminology of cervicogenic headaches and the misunderstandings with the definition of the term. A headache indicates an ache in the head, and not an ache in the neck-a nuchalgia. An ache felt in the head, but originating in the neck is cervicogenic. Cervicogenic headache is a concept with a solid content, and the term is intimately linked to its contents.

A revised edition of the definition is being prepared. In its most typical recognizable form, it is unilateral in the sense that there is no real side shift. The one side is always involved, either completely alone or with varying of contralateral involvement, but never with only a contralateral pain or predominance of such.

Cervicogenic headache is not defined as a vertebral disorder. It is a common misunderstanding that cervicogenic headache is only caused by disorders at the C2/C3 levels. Disorders at all cervical levels may cause cervicogenic headache. It is not an entity or a disease; it is a syndrome with a number of subgroups .

Headache is a common disease, with 21% of men and 36% of women reported as sufferers in Germany. While in most cases it is sufficient to treat headaches, a significant minority of patients with migraine need interval treatment as attacks occur too often or are insufficiently controlled.

A study in Germany was conducted to assess cost-effectiveness of acupuncture in addition to routine care for headache sufferers. This study was conducted at the Institute for Social Medicine, University Medical Centre in Berlin, Germany.

In this randomized, controlled trial, 3200 patients diagnosed with primary headache were studied during a 3 month period. In these 3 months, costs considered included direct health care costs of acupuncture, physician visits and hospital stays, and any drugs prescribed. Indirect costs caused by lost workdays were also taken into account.

Based on the findings of the study, the specialists determined that acupuncture is a cost-effective treatment for headaches. A quality of life assessment given at baseline and at 3 months further supported positive feedback from acupuncture with highly significant differences in favor of acupuncture-treated patients.