Q 01/05

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

A) Pain in half of the head

B) Storm inside the brain

C) Fire behind the eyes

D) Sickness of the head

Answer · why

A) Pain in half of the head

Pain in half of the head: the Greek hemikrania, 'half-skull', named the classic one-sided attack. Everyday speech later swallowed the first syllable, ...

Q 02/05

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

A) Skullache

B) Megrim

C) Cephalgy

D) Hemicrane

Answer · why

B) Megrim

Megrim was the usual English form for centuries, and an 1895 dictionary still filed the headache under it. The French spelling migraine has since push...

Q 03/05

Roughly what share of the world's population has migraine in a given year?

A) 0.5%

B) 2%

C) 14%

D) 45%

Answer · why

C) 14%

14% is about one person in seven, more than a billion people. Yet most are never properly diagnosed: because attacks come and go, the WHO notes, heada...

Q 04/05

A migraine 'aura' takes its name from the Greek word for what?

A) Shadow

B) Breeze

C) Echo

D) Tremor

Answer · why

B) Breeze

Breeze. Doctors first used the word for the current of cold air some patients felt rising towards the head just before a seizure, and it grew to cover...

Q 05/05

What is the name for the warning phase of a migraine, hours or even days before the pain begins?

A) Postdrome

B) Aura

C) Scotoma

D) Prodrome

Answer · why

D) Prodrome

Prodrome signs include repeated yawning, food cravings and a stiff neck. They are worth learning: people who spot them can treat the attack early, whi...