Many people with chronic headaches believe that weather changes trigger their woes.

    Turns out they may be right, suggest new research findings.

    In a study of 25 children and teenagers with migraines or chronic tension-type headaches, researchers found that symptoms tended to flare up on days when it rained or when humidity was higher than normal.

    Overall, study participants were nearly three times more likely to have a headache when it was raining or humidity was higher than average, compared with drier conditions, according to findings published in the journal Headache.

    People who suffer migraines or other types of debilitating headaches commonly cite weather changes as one of the triggers. But studies on the matter have come to conflicting conclusions.

    For the current study, researchers gave children handheld computers to record their headache symptoms in "real time" over two weeks. They then compared that information with weather data the researchers gathered using weather-tracking software.

    This is an improvement over most past studies, which have used less- precise methods, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Mark Connelly of Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo.

    Overall, the researchers found that during periods of rain, kids in their study had a 59% probability of reporting headache symptoms. That compared with a 21% probability at rain-free times.

    Similarly, the odds of headache symptoms were 58% when humidity was higher than average -- versus 22% when humidity levels were average.

    Exactly why rain and humidity would trigger headaches in some children is not clear. Nor do the findings necessarily mean that other weather variables are unimportant.

    One recent study of 7,000 patients with severe migraine or non-migraine headaches found that the risk of symptoms climbed on days when the temperature rose or barometric pressure dropped.

    Low barometric pressure generally means cloudy skies and storms; in the current study, however, there was no specific link between headache symptoms and barometric pressure changes.

    More research is needed to understand how weather variables may affect people's headache symptoms, according to Connelly and his colleagues.

    It also remains to be seen how such knowledge could be practically useful for patients, the researchers conclude.

    許多頭痛病患者認為天氣變化是致病元兇。

    新的研究成果顯示事實可能的確如此。

    在對25名患有偏頭痛和慢性緊張型頭痛的兒童和青少年進行的一項調查中，研究人員發現雨天或濕度大于平常的日子里，頭痛癥狀會加劇。

    《頭痛》雜志上發布的研究結果表明，整體而言，參與實驗者在雨天或濕度大于平常的日子里頭痛發作是干燥天氣下的三倍。

    偏頭痛患者或其他類型頭痛病患者通常都認為天氣變化是誘因之一，但是有關于此的研究卻有著相沖突的結論。

    就當前進行的研究而言，研究人員讓孩子們在兩周之內通過電腦實時記錄自己的頭痛癥狀。然后將結果與研究人員以天氣追蹤軟件收集到的數據加以比較。

    密蘇里州堪薩斯兒童福利醫院的Mark Connelly博士領導的研究小組成員說這種方法較之以前大有改進，之前的研究方法相比之下不夠精確。

    研究人員發現參與實驗的孩子在雨天反映有頭痛癥狀的占59%,而不下雨時這一比例僅為21%.

    與此類似的是在濕度大于平時的天氣頭痛發作比例為58%,而濕度為平均水平時這一比例為22%.

    雨天和潮濕天氣引發部分兒童頭痛的具體原因尚不明了。這些研究結果也并非意味著其他氣候變化就不重要。

    一項對患有嚴重偏頭痛或其他頭痛病患者的近期研究顯示，溫度上升或氣壓下降時這些頭痛癥狀的發生隨之攀升。

    低氣壓通常意味著多云和風暴；然而當前研究表明頭痛癥狀與氣壓變化并沒有明顯關聯。

    Connelly和其同事說要弄清楚天氣變化如何影響人們頭痛發作還需作進一步研究。

    研究人員的結論是，如何將上述研究結果實際運用于患者還有待了解。