Category: Headaches

— The disability from migraine headaches is an enormous health burden affecting over 30 million Americans.

In newly released research, 79 migraine sufferers were followed for at least five years after having undergone detection of migraine "trigger sites" and surgery. The new data finds promising outcomes for treating trigger sites surgically for migraine headaches resulting in elimination of pain for those afflicted with the condition.

Since the surgery, 10 of the 79 patients required additional surgeries for newly detected trigger sites and were eliminated from the final analysis. Sixty-one of the remaining 69 patients (88 percent) have maintained the initial positive response to the surgery. Twenty patients (29 percent) reported elimination of migraines entirely, 41 patients (59 percent) noticed a significant decrease, and only eight patients (11 percent) experienced less than 50 percent improvement or no change.

This new data provides strong evidence that surgical manipulation of one or more migraine trigger sites can successfully eliminate (cure) or reduce the frequency, duration, and/or intensity of migraine headaches with lasting results.

Bahman Guyuron, MD, Chairman of Plastic Surgery at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and an internationally recognized leader in the field of plastic surgery, will present new five-year research data that could potentially reveal a cure for migraine headaches on October 24, 2009, at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons annual meeting in Seattle.

"Migraine headaches are extremely disabling and this surgical option offers hope for migraine sufferers," says Dr. Guyuron. "Combined with the previous studies, this new five-year data has provided strong evidence that severe migraine headaches and their painful symptoms can be successfully treated with surgery with lasting results."

The impetus behind Dr. Guyuron's eight migraine headache research projects was his observation close to a decade ago that many patients who had undergone forehead rejuvenation noticed a disappearance in migraine symptoms following surgery.

For patients who suffer frontal migraine headaches, Dr. Guyuron removes the corrugator supercilii (frowning) muscle group in the forehead that is suspected to be a trigger point for headaches, compressing nerves and causing nerve inflammation. Temple migraine headaches are treated by removing a small branch of the trigeminal nerve. For those patients who suffer from occipital (back of the head) migraine headaches, a small piece of muscle encasing the nerve is removed and replace with a soft tissue flap. When the headaches are located behind eyes and are triggered by weather change, he works on the nose septum and surrounding structures. Dr. Guyruon has performed more than 1,000 of these procedures on more than 450 patients, since each patient has 2.5 trigger sites in average. Analysis of more recent results demonstrates a significantly higher elimination rate.

Migraine sufferers, beware. You may be more prone to an alcohol-induced headache after a night of drinking, according to researchers from the Jefferson Headache Center. The research will be presented at Neuroscience 2009, the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in Chicago.

Until now, studying the mechanism behind migraine and other forms of recurrent headaches has not been possible in an animal model, according to Michael Oshinsky, Ph.D., assistant professor of Neurology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and a member of the Jefferson Headache Center team. In order to facilitate the study of migraine, Dr. Oshinsky developed a rat model in which headaches are induced by repeatedly stimulating, over weeks to months, the brain's dura mater with an inflammatory mixture.

Dr. Oshinsky and Christina Maxwell, a Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience program at the Jefferson College of Graduate Studies, used their rat model to study the effects of alcohol on rats who suffer recurrent migraines, compared to rats that do not get headaches. They analyzed four groups of rats: two groups received repeated dural simulation, followed by an oral ingestion of saline or alcohol (the equivalent of one to two shots of liquor). Two control groups received no inflammatory stimulation, and received the similar oral ingestion of saline or alcohol.

Migraine headaches are associated with hypersensitivity to light, sound and light touch on the head and face. The researchers measured the rats' sensitivity to touch around the eye, using von Frey monofilaments. They monitored the change in pain threshold of the face resulting from the repeated dural stimulation.

The rats that received dural stimulation followed by alcohol showed an initial analgesic effect within the first two hours after alcohol ingestion. However, four to six hours later, their pain sensitivity increased, indicating a more painful state. There were no changes in alcohol-induced sensitivity in the control groups.

"Our results suggest that dehydration or impurities in alcohol are not responsible for hangover headache," Dr. Oshinsky said. "Since these rats were sufficiently hydrated and the alcohol they received contained no impurities, the alcohol itself or a metabolite must be causing the hangover-like headache. These data confirm the clinical observation that people with migraine are more susceptible to alcohol-induced headaches."

Dr. Oshinsky and his laboratory are now also studying the mechanism for the induction of headache, and also the metabolites of alcohol that cause hangover.

Family quarrels and a lack of free time can promote headaches in children. This is what Jennifer Gassmann and her coauthors concluded in their study on risk factors, which appears in the current issue of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.

This investigation was a component of a large-scale study entitled "Children, Adolescents, and Headache" (Kinder, Jugendliche und Kopfschmerz—KiJuKo), in which data were collected in four annual "waves" from 2003 to 2006. Out of a multitude of variables tested in the larger study, the authors chose to look at the ones that concerned the children's family and leisure time. Up to 30% of all children around the world complain of headache symptoms arising at least once per week.

Boys who experienced more than one family quarrel per week had a 1.8 times higher risk of developing headaches. The amount of free time available to them seemed to be even more important: boys who only sometimes had time to themselves had a 2.1 times higher risk of developing headaches.

Parents' behavior when their child complains of headache also seemed to play a major role. Either positive or negative reinforcement from the parents teaches the child that he or she can gain certain advantages from headache symptoms. The parents' responses had a particularly strong effect on the frequency of symptoms in girls: reinforcing parental responses raised their risk of recurrent headaches by 25%.

The sexes also differed with respect to the frequency of headache. Twice as many girls as boys had their symptoms at least once a week. The children's age, however, seemed to have no more than a minor effect on headache manifestations.

Journal Reference:

1. Jennifer Gaßmann, Nuria Vath, Hester van Gessel, Birgit Kröner-Herwig. Risk Factors for Headache in Children. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, 2009; 106 (31-32): 509-16

People who consume high amounts of caffeine each day are more likely to suffer occasional headaches than those with low caffeine consumption, a team of researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) reports in a study recently published in the Journal of Headache Pain.

But in findings that had “no obvious reason”, the researchers, led by Knut Hagen from NTNU’s Faculty of Medicine, also reported that low caffeine consumption was associated with a greater likelihood of chronic headaches, defined as headaches for 14 or more days each month.

The results are drawn from a large cross-sectional study of 50,483 people who answered a questionnaire about caffeine consumption and headache prevalence as a part of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Survey (HUNT 2), a county-wide health survey conducted in 1995-1997 on a wide range of health topics.

To drink or not to drink

Caffeine is the world’s most commonly consumed stimulant, and has long been known to have both positive and negative effects on headaches. For example, caffeine is a common ingredient in headache analgesics because it can help relieve headaches.

But research worldwide into the relationship between caffeine consumption and headache provides no relief to headache sufferers wondering whether they should drink more coffee or less. Some studies have shown that high caffeine consumption increases the prevalence of headaches and migraines, while other studies have shown no such relationship.

At the same time, headaches are costly to society, in work hours lost, and to individuals themselves. The World Health Organisation ranks migraine 19th in all causes of disability based on a measure called “years lived with disability”, as one example.

The issue is of particular interest in Scandinavia, because Scandinavians are heavy coffee drinkers, consuming on average about 400 mg of caffeine per day. That is roughly twice the average caffeine consumption in other European countries and in the US, and equates to roughly 4 cups of brewed coffee per day, although caffeine levels in coffee vary quite widely.

The power – and limitation — of numbers

The HUNT study is powerful because it is large-scale, population-based and cross-sectional, but when it comes to headaches, these characteristics make it difficult to establish cause-and-effect. For example, the frequency of non-migraine headache was found by researchers to be 18 per cent more likely in individuals with high caffeine consumption (500 mg per day or more) than among those with the lowest consumption (with mean levels at 125 mg per day).

But does that mean that all that caffeine causes headaches – or that people who are more likely to suffer from headaches drink caffeinated beverages in search of relief? “Since the study is cross-sectional, it cannot be concluded that high caffeine consumption causes infrequent headache,” the researchers write.

Even more difficult is explaining why chronic headache was less likely among individuals with moderate or high caffeine consumption, the researchers said. One possibility is that caffeine consumption helps change chronic headache into infrequent headache.

Cutting back may help

But it is equally possible that chronic headache sufferers had reduced their intake of caffeine because they had experienced its headache precipitating properties – and that individuals with infrequent headaches were unaware that high caffeine might be the cause.

In an interview, Hagen said that people should consider cutting back on their coffee consumption if headaches were a problem. “People who suffer from headaches should be focused on their caffeine use, because it can be a cause of their headaches,” he said.

Journal Reference:

1. Knut Hagen, Kari Thoresen, Lars Jacob Stovner, John-Anker Zwart. High dietary caffeine consumption is associated with a modest increase in headache prevalence: results from the Head-HUNT Study. Journal of Headache Pain, 2009; 10: 153-159 DOI: 10.1007/s10194-009-0114-6

A new study conducted at the Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shows an investigational, orally-inhaled therapy is effective in treating migraines. The multi-center, phase three FREEDOM-301 trial for the orally-inhaled migraine therapy, LEVADEX™, shows study participants had significant relief from symptoms such as pain, nausea and light and sound sensitivity when compared to placebo treatment.

According to trial results, this therapy provided pain relief in 30 minutes and sustained relief for 48 hours after dosing in patients with moderate or severe migraine attacks. The drug was generally very well tolerated and there were no drug-related, serious adverse events reported.

According to the American Headache Society (AHS), migraine is a common, debilitating neurological disorder that affects approximately 30 million people in the United States. The AHS also states that most migraines last between four and 24 hours, but some may last as long as three days. Common associated symptoms of migraine include nausea, vomiting, photophobia (sensitivity to light) and phonophobia (sensitivity to sound).

"The major advantage of LEVADEX is that it has the efficacy of intravenous DHE (dihydroergotamine) with a side-effect profile similar to placebo and better than oral triptans," said Stephen Silberstein, M.D., F.A.C.P, a clinical study investigator, director of the Jefferson Headache Center, and professor in the Department of Neurology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.

About the FREEDOM-301 Study

FREEDOM-301 is a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of LEVADEX as a potential treatment for acute migraine. Primary efficacy measures include pain relief, and being free from phonophobia, photophobia and nausea at two hours after dosing. Patients enrolled in the trial were evaluated for the treatment of a single moderate or severe migraine attack and then were given the option to continue in an open label, long-term safety study. This safety study is targeting 300 patients for six months and 150 patients for 12 months, and over 500 patients are continuing in this arm of the trial. FREEDOM-301, the first Phase 3 study of LEVADEX therapy, was conducted pursuant to a Special Protocol Assessment with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FREEDOM-301 trial is sponsored by MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

About LEVADEX™

LEVADEX orally inhaled migraine therapy is a novel migraine therapy in Phase 3 development. Patients administer LEVADEX themselves using MAP Pharmaceuticals' proprietary TEMPO® inhaler. LEVADEX has been designed to be differentiated from existing migraine treatments. It is a novel formulation of dihydroergotamine (DHE), a drug used intravenously in clinical settings for many years to effectively and safely treat migraines. Based on clinical results, MAP Pharmaceuticals believes that LEVADEX has the potential to provide both fast onset of action and sustained pain relief and other migraine symptom relief in an easy-to-use and non-invasive at-home therapy.

Based on research to date, including the FREEDOM-301 trial, MAP Pharmaceuticals believes the unique pharmacokinetic profile of LEVADEX has the potential to effectively treat migraines, while minimizing the side effects commonly seen with DHE and other currently available medicines.

About the Jefferson Headache Center

The Jefferson Headache Center is one of a very few academic headache centers in the country. The Center, founded in 1982, specializes in the treatment of patients with all types of headache pain. In addition to treating patients, the Jefferson Headache Center is a teaching facility that gives trainees the highest quality of preparation so that they can make contributions to patient care and advance the level of knowledge of headache medicine. The Fellowship program prepares Fellows for a career in clinical headache practice or academic headache medicine and/or research. The Jefferson Headache Center is also deeply involved in research. The Clinical Research team is made up of the Clinical Research Manager, several Research Coordinators, and a Clinical Trials Assistant. For more information, visit http://www.jefferson.edu/headache.

Editor's Note: LEVADEX and TEMPO are trademarks of MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Silberstein serves on the Advisory Board for MAP Pharmaceuticals.

A new study published in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) finds that two years after anterior cervical neck operations, patients who have arthroplasty (disc replacement) or arthodesis (spine fusion) can be expected to have significant improvement in their headache symptoms.

"This is not a "cure" for all headaches. But, if you have headaches associated with neck pain and dysfunction, surgery for the neck problem can significantly improve the related headaches. And, anytime overall quality of life can be improved with surgical treatment, that is something to note." said study lead author, Joseph Riina, MD, of Orthopaedics Indianapolis.

The purpose of this study was to determine:

• the prevalence of headaches in patients with cervical radiculopathy (shooting pain in the arm) or myelopathy (spinal cord dysfunction);
• and the effectiveness of anterior cervical surgery (neck surgery from the front) in relieving headache symptoms associated with the cervical disease.

This study does not include migraine headaches and only studied headaches associated with cervical spine disease. Additionally, study authors acknowledge there still is a lack of knowledge regarding the exact anatomical structures that cause headaches, which could be caused by the disc, joints, muscles, tissues or some combination of those.

None of the patients surveyed had the operation to treat their headaches and headaches were not their only complaint. Additionally, no significant difference was reported in headache severity between the arthroplasty and arthodesis groups. The study participants (51.6 percent of whom were male) ranged in age from 25 to 78. The results were as follows:

Pre-surgery: Of the 1004 patients surveyed, 86.4 percent reported headaches. 34.1 percent reported mild headaches (a 1 or 2 rating on the scale) and 52.1 percent reported severe headaches (a 3, 4 or 5 on the scale.)

Two years after surgery: Of the 803 patients responding, 65.1 percent reported headaches. 34.9 percent reported no headaches, 46.7 percent reported mild headaches, and 18.4 percent reported severe headaches.

"This is the largest study that we know of, in which incidence and improvement of headaches has been studied related to anterior spine surgery. I think we answered a big question: Can patients have less neck pain and fewer headaches after this kind of surgery? And, the answer is yes." Said Riina. "We evaluated more than 1000 patients, using the Neck Disability Index questionnaire before surgery and at five increments after surgery, the latest was 24 months post surgery and the evidence suggests that there can be significant improvements in headache pain."

Migraine headaches are a drain — not only on the estimated 30 million Americans who suffer from them, but on the economy, too. Because pain and other symptoms caused by migraine headaches can be quite severe, it is projected that nearly $13 billion is spent every year in headache treatment and loss of time from work, which no one can afford these days.

But according to a new study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), there is hope for severe and frequent migraine sufferers who can't find relief in conventional remedies.

"Nearly one out of four households, including 18 percent of women, suffer from migraines and many patients are not only eager, but desperate to stop the pain," said ASPS Member Surgeon and study author Bahman Guyuron, MD, professor and chairman, department of plastic surgery, University Hospitals Case Medical Center. "In this study, we've shown that surgical treatment of migraine headaches is safe, effective, and that this reasonably short operation can have a colossal impact on the patients' quality of life – all while eliminating signs of aging for some patients, too."

For nearly a decade, researchers have been testing the concept that migraines are caused when a person's trigeminal nerve branches are irritated. When the muscles around these branches are incapacitated, the headaches stop, which is why some patients have found relief from the 'freezing' effect of Botox treatments. However, according to this study, removal of these muscles or 'triggers,' offers an easily attainable and permanent fix.

In this double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial, researchers (including a plastic surgeon and two neurologists) from Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, identified the three most common trigger sites and then randomly assigned 75 patients to either the actual (49 patients) or sham-surgery groups (26 patients). Patients then completed questionnaires and underwent either a real or perceived deactivation operation on their predominant migraine trigger site, which for most patients, was similar to that of a traditional forehead lift.

One year later, 57 percent of the patients in the actual surgery group reported complete elimination of migraine headaches, compared with only 4 percent in the sham surgery group. Furthermore, 83 percent of the actual surgery group observed at least a 50 percent reduction in migraines. And while there was a high (57 percent) incidence of symptom improvement in the sham surgery group, which has been similarly reported in other studies and could be attributed to the placebo effect, among other things—researchers point out that the difference in migraine improvement and elimination reported by the two groups was statistically significant.

"Though one might not think to look to plastic surgeons to treat migraines, we are commonly involved in peripheral nerve surgery and treat nerve- related pain, so this is a meaningful addition to the field of reconstructive plastic surgery," said Dr. Guyuron. "And I can say that these procedures are the most rewarding for me, because these are the patients that come back and report that their lives have been changed."

According to ASPS statistics, nearly 5 million reconstructive plastic surgery procedures were performed in 2008.

Most children who suffer from chronic daily headache may outgrow the disabling condition, according to research published in the July 15, 2009, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Nearly 1.5 percent of middle school children are affected by chronic daily headache, which includes chronic migraines and tension-type headaches.

"Our results suggest there is hope for children who experience these headaches and for their parents, who also deal with the frustration and considerable disability that this condition can bring," said study author Shuu-Jiun Wang, MD, of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine in Taipei, Taiwan. "Over time, most of these children get better, eventually having less frequent migraine headaches as young adults."

For the study, scientists followed 122 children in middle school with chronic daily headache between the ages of 12 and 14 years old. Chronic daily headache was defined as experiencing 15 or more headache days per month, with each headache lasting for two or more hours per day.

The study found 60 percent of the children no longer had chronic daily headache after one year and 75 percent no longer had the symptoms after two years. After eight years, only 12 percent of the 103 children tested still experienced symptoms of chronic daily headache. However, 75 percent of the children had episodic migraine or probable migraine, while 11 percent became headache free after eight years.

"Parents and children should be prepared for the possibility that while chronic daily headache may get better over time, headaches in general may never fully go away, but for most children the headaches are much less frequent when they become young adults," said Wang.

The study found migraine history was a major risk factor for children having chronic daily headache into young adulthood. Children who had chronic daily headache before age 13, those who overused pain medications, and those with the condition for more than two years were more likely to have higher headache frequency and the condition eight years later.

The study was supported by the Taipei Veterans General Hospital and Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital.

The relationship between migraine headaches in women and a significant reduction in breast cancer risk has been confirmed in a follow-on study to landmark research published last year and conducted by scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The new study found a 26 percent reduced risk of breast cancer among both premenopausal and postmenopausal women with a clinical diagnosis of migraines.

The study appears in the July 2009 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. It was led by Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., a breast-cancer epidemiologist and associate member of the Hutchinson Center's Public Health Sciences Division. Li led the first-of-its-kind study linking migraines with breast cancer risk reduction that was published in the same journal last November.

This time researchers found that the risk reduction remained statistically similar regardless of a woman's menopausal status, her age at migraine diagnosis, use of prescription migraine medications or whether she avoided known migraine "triggers" such as alcohol consumption, smoking and taking hormone replacements. These triggers are also well-established breast cancer risk factors.

Some key differences between this study and the initial one that discovered the link include:

• The sample size was more than four times larger this time – more than 4,500 cases and controls versus about 1,000 each in the first study – and was more diverse geographically, drawing women from five metropolitan areas instead of only one. "From an epidemiological perspective, having a larger and more diverse study in its underlying population helps in replicating the finding," Li said.
• The age range of women studied was wider this time, 34-64 years of age versus 55-74 years old. "We were able to look at whether this association was seen among both pre-menopausal and post menopausal women," Li said. "In breast cancer this is relevant because there are certain risk factors that are different between older and younger women. In this study we saw the same reduction in breast cancer risk associated with a migraine history regardless of age."
• Researchers were able to ascertain whether women in the study had lifestyle behaviors that are known migraine triggers – alcohol consumption, smoking and taking hormone replacement therapy. Researchers posited that perhaps women who had migraines drank and smoked less and didn't take hormone replacements. "But in this study we looked at women who never drank, never smoked and who also didn't use hormones and found the same association within each of those groups, suggesting that the association between migraine and reduced breast cancer risk may be independent of those other factors and may stand alone as a protective factor," he said.

What remains unknown is how migraine confers its apparent protection against breast cancer. "We know that migraine is definitely related to hormones and that's why we started looking at this in the first place," Li said. "We have different ideas about what may be going on but it's unclear exactly what the biological mechanisms are."

In the meantime, research on migraines and breast cancer continues. Li and his colleagues are conducting a follow-up investigation among the women in the first study to determine the types, timing, intensity and severity of their migraines in hopes that the data may elicit additional clues.

And, the research group has submitted a third study for publication that found that the association between migraine and reduced breast cancer risk holds up independent of whether women with migraine took non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen. Earlier studies linked these medications to reduced breast cancer risk as well.

NewsPsychology (June 24, 2009) — Tobacco acts as a precipitating factor for headaches, specifically migraines, new research suggests. This is indicated in a study which shows that smokers have more migraine attacks and that smoking more than five cigarettes a day triggers this headache. The work has appeared in the Journal of Headache and Pain.

The influence of tobacco as a precipitating, non-causal factor of migraine attacks has produced contradictory data in scientific literature. The limited research prior to the work published in The Journal of Headache and Pain indicated that smoking could improve migraines by reducing anxiety, one of the factors that triggers an attack.

“This study is groundbreaking in Spain as there are few studies on this topic, and all are very biased. This is due to the complexity and need for prior training of the participants”, Julio Pascual, one of the authors of this research and doctor at the Neurology Unit of Marqués de Valdecilla, University Hospital (Santander), explains to SINC.

One advantage of this study is that the sample used, 361 medicine students from the University of Salamanca, were fully aware what a migraine was. The experts, who enquired about the presence or absence of migraine (and its characteristics) and whether or not they smoked, guaranteed the reliability of the results obtained, as most surveys for this type of study are done over the phone, randomly and in people without knowledge of the illness.

The results show that 16% of students fulfilled migraine criteria, while 20% smoked. The percentage of smokers was higher (29%) in those who were also migraine sufferers and migraine frequency in those students who were migraine sufferers and smokers was clearly higher than in those who were non-smokers and migraine sufferers.

According to Pascual, “smoking is a precipitating factor of this type of headache, as the prevalence of active smokers is one third higher in migraine sufferers and there is a direct relationship between the number of cigarettes consumed and the frequency of migraine attacks”.

The researchers stressed the importance of the dosage. The results of the interviews reveal that the migraine sets in after five daily cigarettes. Furthermore, although the percentage of those who smoked was higher in people with migraines, they smoked less than those who did not suffer migraines.

“This is because they themselves knew that if they exceeded five cigarettes a day, they were more likely to have a migraine attack. The pain itself acts as a limiting factor”, explains the neurologist, who maintains that “in no case should a migraine sufferer be advised to smoke thinking that it is going to improve their migraines. What’s more, if you smoke a lot you should reduce the dose drastically”.

90% of affected people self-medicate

“The supposed migraine cure ends up becoming its cause because of self-medication”. Feliu Titus, an honorary member of the Spanish Neurological Society, explained last May in the paper Migraine treatment. The role of non-pharmacological methods, in Barcelona.

In Spain, this illness affects five million people and 2% of the population suffers attacks for more than 15 days a month. According to Titus, “more than 20% have never consulted a specialist”. 90% of migraine sufferers self-medicate, without being aware of the risk that this entails. Anyone who suffers from migraines and abuses drugs ends up suffering adverse effects and a worsening of the illness due to a “rebound effect”, according to specialists.

Chronic headaches are a separate illness and one of the most frequent chronic diseases. Although the causes are still not clear, in some migraine cases it is already demonstrated that there is a genetic basis. In fact, most patients with migraines have a history of it in their family.

“Nowadays it is believed that migraines are a state of hyperexcitability of the neurons that control headaches. Migraine sufferers are born with ion channels in the membrane of the neurons which are much more permeable and excitable. The brain of migraine sufferers is therefore able to link an attack with precipitating stimuli such as tobacco”, Julio Pascual concludes.

To a large extent, the cause of this hyperexcitability has a genetic basis. In fact, some specific mutations are already known to be responsible for the hyperexcitabilty of these membrane ion channels.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by newsPsychology staff) from materials provided by FECYT – Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

1. López-Mesonero et al. Smoking as a precipitating factor for migraine: a survey in medical students. The Journal of Headache and Pain, 2009; 10 (2): 101 DOI: 10.1007/s10194-009-0098-2

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of NewsPsychology or its staff.