Migraines

Migraine stats:

• Migraine is the 3rd most prevalent illness in the world.

• Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. households includes someone with migraine.

• 12% of the population – including children – suffers from migraine.

• 18% of American women, 6% of men, and 10% of children experience migraines.

• Migraine is most common between the ages of 25 and 55.

• Migraine tends to run in families.

• About 90% of migraine sufferers have a family history of migraine.

Mechanism of migraine:

Dilation and inflammation of cephalic arteries and intracranial extra cerebral arteries cause the migraine headache. The migraine-associated symptoms result from the activation of the sympathetic nervous system caused by the pain. The migraine aura is caused by the neurophysiological phenomenon of spreading excitation/depression. The various mechanisms are tied together in the so-called “parallel theory” of the pathogenesis of the migraine attack

Common symptoms:


Throbbing, pulsating pain – 85 percent
Light sensitivity  – 80 percent
Sound sensitivity – 76 percent
Nausea – 73 percent
Pain on one side – 59 percent
Vision changes, blurred vision – 44 percent
Aura – 36 percent
Vomiting – 29 percent


Uncommon symptoms:

• Limb numbness/ limb tingling

• Hypersensitivity to touch - allodynia

• Slurred speech

• Auditory hallucinations

• Hiccups

• Metamorphosis - distortion of body image and perspective

• Olfactory hallucinations - smelling odors that aren’t real

• Excessive Yawning

• Monocular Blindness

• Sever Anxiety

• Fever

• Hives

• Diarrhea - constipation

• Fatigue

• Swollen eyelid

• Food cravings

• Vertigo - feeling as if you or objects around you are moving while they’re not

Action of antimigraine medications:

The abortive antimigraine medications act by constricting the dilated arteries through stimulation of the serotonin 1B receptor. The preventive antimigraine medications act by increasing the tone of the extacranial arteries, inhibiting the mechanism of neurogenic inflammation, or inhibiting pain transmission within the central nervous system.

Drugs used to stop migraines:

• acetaminophen (Tylenol)

• non-steroidal ani-inflammatory drugs ( aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen)

•Excedrin

• triptans - serotonin receptors agonists (Imitrex, Zomig)

• ergotamine derivatives (Cafergot)

The preventive antimigraine medications:

• anticonvulsants ( Topiramate)

• antidepressants

• antihistamine (Cyproheptadine)

• beta-blockers (Propranolol)

• calcium channel blockers (Verapamil)