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What are Migraines? The word “migraine” is derived
from a French word meaning “half a head” and is appropriate
because, in most cases, the ache affects only one side of the head.
In contrast to tension headache, the pain soon becomes throbbing or
pulsating in kind due to its origin mainly in over-distended arteries
outside the skull.
There is often a feeling of nausea or
other digestive disturbance, and the pain may be so intense that it
interferes with work and more than likely compel the individual to
lie down. There may be more than one family member who suffers from
this kind of headache, because the tendency to develop migraine is
inherited.
In cases of “classical” migraine
as opposed to common migraine an attack may be heralded by a
pre-headache warning or “aura,” such as spots or flashes of
light before the eyes.
Migraine is a neurological disease,
the most common symptom is an intense and disabling headache.
Migraine headaches are usually characterized by severe pain on one or
both sides of the head.
Migraines are often accompanied by
hypersensitivity to light, and/or hypersensitivity to sound and
nausea.
(Elizabeth Loder MD, FACP, David
Biondi DO (2003) Disease Modification in Migraine: A Concept That Has
Come of Age? Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain 43 (2),
135–143).
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