What is migraine?
You may be wondering, what is migraine? So, let’s try to explain it and the symptoms associated with it a bit more…
Migraine is a severe and painful long-term health condition. Different people can get different symptoms. When you have a migraine attack it can impact your daily life.1
Common symptoms may include:
- A moderate or severe headache, usually on one side of the head2
- Nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light, sound, or strong smells1
- Attacks with or without aura (flashes of light, blind spots, or tingling in the hands or face, which may come on before or during migraine)2
There are two major types of migraine: without aura, and with aura.3
- Migraine without aura – a moderate-to-severe, throbbing headache, typically on one side of the head (and normally towards the front), that typically lasts for at least a few hours, and possibly up to three days.3 The headache is made worse by normal activity such as walking or climbing stairs.3 A person with a migraine attack may feel nauseous and may be extremely sensitive to light and sound.3
- Migraine with aura – a headache together with a series of vision disturbances such as flashes of light, zig-zag patterns, or blind spots.3 Alternatively, the headache may be accompanied by feeling pins and needles, tingling, or numbness in a hand, an arm or the face. Less commonly, aura is associated with difficulty in speaking.3 Aura symptoms can last from 5 minutes to an hour, and usually start before the headache.3 Around 20% of migraine sufferers experience aura symptoms.4
In the hours (or even days) before and after a migraine attack, a person may experience symptoms such as tiredness, difficultly concentrating, or neck stiffness.3
People with migraine are split into two types – ‘episodic migraine’ and ‘chronic migraine’ – depending on how many migraines they get a month.5
People who experience frequent migraine attacks with headaches on 15 days or more days per month are said to have ‘chronic’ migraine.3
People with ‘episodic migraine’5
This describes people who have migraines on fewer than 15 days per month.
People with ‘chronic migraine’5
This describes people who have headaches on at least 15 days a month (including 8 days of migraines), with symptoms lasting for at least 3 months.
Medication Overuse Headache (MOH)6
MOH is a secondary condition that can occur from using lots of acute medicines for at least 3 months. With this high use, sometimes the medicines themselves can cause more headaches. Your healthcare professional can discuss this with you.
References
- 1. What is Migraine?’. The Migraine Trust. Available at https://migrainetrust.org [last accessed July 2024]
- ‘Migraine – symptoms and causes’. Mayo Clinic. Available at https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/migraine-headache/symptoms-causes/syc-20360201 [last accessed July 2024]
- Headache Classification Committee of the International Headache Society (IHS). The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition. Cephalalgia. 2018;38(1):1–211
- Weatherall MW. The diagnosis and treatment of chronic migraine. Ther Adv Chronic Dis. 2015;6(3):115–123.
- Lipton RB, Silberstein SD. Headache. 2015; 55(Suppl 2):103–22; quiz 123–26.
- ‘Medication overuse headache’. The Migraine Trust. Available at https://migrainetrust.org [last accessed July 2024]
