60 Fun Facts About Migraine

What does the Greek root of the word 'migraine' mean?

Hemikrania became the Latin hemicrania, then medieval French migrania, and reached English in the 15th century.

What was an early English spelling of migraine that also meant low spirits?

The word covered general malaise and passing whims as well as severe headaches.

Roughly what share of the world's population is affected by migraine in a given year?

That is about 1.16 billion people, making it the third most disabling neurological condition.

A migraine attack is described in how many phases?

A warning phase, an aura, the pain itself and a hangover-like tail; not everyone experiences all of them.

What is the name for the warning phase up to 48 hours before the pain begins?

Symptoms can include yawning, food cravings, a stiff neck, mood swings and sensitivity to smells.

How long does a migraine aura typically last?

In rare cases, called persistent aura, symptoms remain after the hour is up.

Roughly what proportion of people with migraine experience aura?

Women are more likely than men to have migraine without aura.

What is the term for the flickering, zigzag visual disturbance of a migraine aura?

It usually starts near the centre of vision and spreads outward in jagged black-and-white lines.

Visual symptoms occur in what share of migraine auras?

Sensory auras such as one-sided pins and needles are the second most common, in 30 to 40 percent.

What is the discouraged popular term for an aura that comes without a headache?

Experts prefer the specific term because the visual loss and sensitivities can still be disabling.

How long does the pain phase of a migraine usually last in adults?

Younger patients tend to have shorter headaches, more often on both sides of the head.

In roughly what share of migraine attacks does the pain affect both sides of the head?

The classic picture is one-sided and throbbing, but the throb is not in time with the pulse.

What is the name for a migraine attack lasting more than 72 hours despite treatment?

It can cause dehydration and electrolyte imbalance and may need hospital care.

Nausea accompanies migraine pain in about what share of sufferers?

Around a third actually vomit; many seek out a dark, quiet room.

What is the postdrome phase commonly nicknamed?

The classification defines it as the 48 hours after the pain ends; tiredness, thirst and poor concentration are typical.

Chronic migraine means headache on at least how many days a month for over three months?

At least eight of those days must meet the criteria for migraine.

From age 30 to 50, up to how many times as many women as men experience migraine attacks?

The gap opens at puberty and is most pronounced for migraine without aura.

What is the most frequently reported migraine trigger for women?

Stress comes next for both sexes; attacks tend to peak in perimenopause and ease after menopause.

Which cranial pathway carries the pain signals central to migraine?

The trigeminovascular system links this nerve, the meninges and blood vessels; the hypothalamus can modulate its activity.

What does CGRP, the target of the migraine drugs introduced from 2018, stand for?

Released from the trigeminal ganglion, it dilates meningeal blood vessels and activates pain nerve endings in the dura.

Which brain phenomenon is associated with migraine aura?

A wave of depolarisation crosses the cortex at 1.5 to 9.5 mm a minute, followed by suppression of neuronal activity.

Which Brazilian scientist's name is attached to spreading depression?

The visual aura of migraine may be related to the wave he first described in the 1940s.

The '5, 4, 3, 2, 1' rule for diagnosing migraine without aura begins with what?

Then a duration of 4 hours to 3 days, at least 2 listed pain features, and at least 1 associated symptom.

Which body first comprehensively classified migraine, in 1988?

Its ICHD classification was updated in 2004 and again in 2018.

An aura accompanied by motor weakness defines which type?

The familial form is one of the few single-gene migraines, inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern.

Which type can cause temporary blindness in one eye?

It is distinct from ordinary visual aura, which affects both eyes' field of view.

Abdominal migraine, with bouts of stomach pain and nausea, is mostly diagnosed in whom?

Attacks average about 17 hours, and many sufferers develop typical migraine later in life.

Which perceptual disorder linked to migraine makes objects seem too large or too small?

Also called Todd's syndrome after a 1955 description, it is seen more in the young than in adults.

Migraine heritability is estimated at what range?

It rarely reflects a single gene; common migraine is polygenic, with many variants each adding a little risk.

Which class of drug is first-line for moderate to severe migraine attacks?

Gepants are used when they do not work or are unsuitable, and simple painkillers for milder attacks.

The first-line drugs for severe attacks are agonists at receptors for which neurotransmitter?

They are agonists at 5-HT1B and 5-HT1D receptors on blood vessels and nerve endings in the brain.

Which was the first triptan, developed in 1988?

It won approval in 1991 and was sold as Imitrex at about $25 a pill.

Which company won approval for the first triptan in 1991?

Its patents on the drug expired in February 2009.

Why should opioids generally not be prescribed for these headaches?

Even simple painkillers on more than 15 days a month, or migraine-specific drugs on more than 10, can cause overuse headache.

Which fungal alkaloid, isolated in 1918, was first used against migraine in 1925?

Ergot itself had been introduced as a migraine treatment in 1868.

The ergot fungus, source of an early migraine drug, grows on which crop?

Claviceps purpurea is the ergot fungus of rye and related grasses.

Erenumab, approved in 2018, was the first drug of which kind?

Sold as Aimovig and developed by Amgen and Novartis, it listed at about $6,900 a year.

Which vitamin, also known as B2, is among the supplements that may help prevent migraine?

Magnesium, vitamin D and coenzyme Q10 are also cited; omega-3 fatty acids do not seem to help.

Preventive medication is usually recommended for people with more than how many migraines a month?

Options include beta blockers, topiramate, CGRP inhibitors and, for chronic cases, Botox injections.

Which Egyptian medical text of about 1500 BCE describes something like migraine?

Babylonian texts blamed similar symptoms on supernatural forces.

Which physician turned 'heterocrania' into 'hemicrania', ancestor of the word migraine?

Aretaeus of Cappadocia had classified headaches into cephalalgia, cephalea and heterocrania.

Which medieval mystic's visions of 'the living light' may describe migraine aura?

The 12th-century abbess and composer described her visions in detail.

Which 17th-century physician said migraine involved brain vessels narrowing, then widening?

Harold Wolff's 20th-century vascular theory likewise linked the pain to blood-vessel dilation.

What was the job of Louis Hyacinthe Thomas, who split migraine into two types in 1887?

His 'migraine ophthalmique' and 'migraine vulgaire' correspond to migraine with and without aura.

In which year was ergot introduced as a migraine treatment?

An 1892 textbook listed ergot, cannabis, bromides and caffeine among the usual treatments.

Which Canadian physician covered migraine in his 1892 Principles and Practice of Medicine?

His book was the gold-standard medical text of the day.

Migraine with aura is associated with an increased risk of what?

The risk is higher again for women who use oestrogen-containing contraceptives; migraine without aura shows no such link.

About what share of people with episodic migraine progress to chronic migraine each year?

Few go the other way, and overuse of acute painkillers can hasten the progression.

Roughly what share of women are affected by migraine at some point in their lives?

The figure for men is about 18%; before puberty boys and girls are affected equally.

What share of the funding its burden would justify did US migraine research get in 2019?

In Europe it was the most underfunded brain disease relative to its economic impact.

Which prehistoric skull-drilling practice is loosely linked to headache treatment?

It has been practised since the Neolithic, but there is little evidence it was aimed at migraine.

Where does migraine rank among the most disabling conditions of the nervous system?

About 1.16 billion people are affected in a given year, and severe migraine sits in the WHO's highest disability category.

Before puberty, roughly what share of children experience migraine attacks?

Boys and girls are affected equally until puberty, after which women's rates climb well above men's.

What was the estimated total annual cost of migraine in the United States as of 2017?

Most of the cost is lost work; people who do go in during an attack are around a third less effective.

Which of these look-alike conditions typically strikes people over 50 with tenderness at the temple?

Cluster headache brings one-sided tearing and nasal stuffiness, glaucoma vision problems, and meningitis fever.

Which corticosteroid has been used for attacks that drag on past 72 hours?

It is reserved for prolonged, refractory or recurrent headaches rather than everyday attacks.

In comparisons of acute treatments, which drug class carried the highest risk of side effects?

Triptans were the most successful at relieving pain within two hours, while gepants were the least likely to cause side effects.

During which trimesters of pregnancy do migraine attacks often stop or diminish?

Attacks also commonly ease after menopause, though fewer than half of people with migraine ever seek medical care.

For predictable menstrual migraine, how long after the period starts may preventive triptans continue?

This short preventive course can be combined with other preventive drugs.

Twin studies put the genetic influence on developing migraine in what range?

Migraine is a complex disorder with many risk variants, each raising the odds only marginally.