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Regional United States suicide rates in the mid 1970s were associated with the household prevalence of all guns and of pistols. The term "regional" applies to the nine Census divisions of the four US census regions. A literature review suggests that the relation may be etiologic, and that more definitive studies and pilot programs are needed. Arming may be an etiologic factor common both to individual and to national self-destructive behaviors.

Information about headache was collected from a nonclinical sample of 451 women, aged 15 to 44, in 12 major U.S. cities. Questions were asked in regard to the presence in the past year of headache, and of the following characteristic symptoms of migraine: unilateral location, throbbing quality, visual aura, vomiting, and severity sufficient to affect daily activities. Twenty-three percent of the women had headaches with two or more of these characteristics. The frequency of such symptoms was significantly greater in women who smoked or formerly had smoked cigarettes, in women with lower incomes and poor education, and in women with a history of hypertension, stomach ulcer, fainting, and a variety of emotional complaints. The frequency of reported symptoms of migraine did not vary significantly according to age, race, marital status, use of oral contraceptives, or number of living children. These findings do not support the commonly held clinical impression that migraine is uncommon among blacks or among the poorly educated.