Migraine

Migraine Clinical Picture

What Symptoms Occur During a Migraine Attack? •

Migraineurs have recurrent, severe, and disabling attacks of headache, often unilateral and pulsating, along with symptoms of sensory disturbance, such as light, sound, and odor sensitivity. Nausea and neck stiffness are other common symptoms, and symptoms can be aggravated by movement.

• Some patients experience dizziness during attacks.

• About 20–30% of patients experience aura and neurological symptoms (e.g., visual disturbances), which usually precede the headache phase of an attack.

• Premonitory symptoms such as yawning, irritability, tiredness, cravings, and difficulty concentrating sometimes precede headache onset.

What Is Migraine Aura, and What Symptoms Can Occur?

• An aura is any neurological symptom that occurs shortly before the headache attack. Visual symptoms (e.g., flickering lights or zigzag phenomena), somatosensory symptoms (e.g., paresthesias), speech problems, and rarely, motor symptoms can occur during aura.

• Symptoms usually last >5 and <60 minutes.

• Before migraine can be diagnosed, other possible neurological deficits must first be excluded.

• Cortical spreading depression (see below) is thought to be the pathophysiological cause.

What Can Trigger a Migraine?

• Menstruation

• Shortness of sleep, irregular sleep, or too much sleep

• Stress (or in some patients, relaxation from stress)

• Alcohol (e.g., red wine)

• Caffeine (e.g., coffee, chocolate)

• Foods containing glutamate or aspartame

• Dehydration

• Vasodilating drugs (e.g., nitrates) Epidemiology

How Many People Are Affected by Migraine?

• Women: about 13–18% of the population

• Men: about 5–10% of the population

• Numbers may be lower in Asian populations Chronic Migraine About 4% of the adult population experiences chronic headache, i.e., headache on 15 or more days a month. About half of this group has chronic migraine, and the other half has chronic tension-type headache  Disorders/Abnormalities That Can Be Comorbid with Migraine

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Fibromyalgia

• Back pain

• Hypertension

• Stroke and cardiac disease

• Childhood vomiting

TREATMENT

ONLY HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINES CAN CONTROL THIS