Vestibular Migraine TOUCH MEDICAL MEDIA

TOUCH MEDICAL MEDIA 39 Population based studies show that primary headaches, such as migraine, are very common disorders.1 Similar accounts to vertigo and dizziness, which are are also symptoms frequently complained of.2 A significant proportion of patients report suffering these symptoms (headache, dizziness and/or vertigo) simultaneously and independently of each other. This especially accounts for migraine since up to 50% of these patients report that dizziness or vertigo accompanies their headaches at least once in a while. After a first attempt to introduce the term “vestibular migraine” (VM) was made in 1999 the International Headache Society (IHS) and the Bárány-Society (International Society for Neuro-Otology) just recently published a consensus paper with diagnostic criteria for VM. These criteria were adopted as appendix criteria in the beta version of the third International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3 beta) to support systematic research on the pathophysiology and treatment of VM. In the clinical setting, these new criteria may serve to aid practitioners in the assessment of patients with VM. While vertigo specialists generally accept the existence of this entity, between headache specialists the discussion is much more controversial. Some people favour this entity, others doubt the existence of the disorder. There is an ongoing debate whether the condition is a unique entity or it simply represents a subtype of common migraine, which also includes vestibular symptoms given that migraines often occurs with predominance of other accompanying symptoms such as excessive vomiting or phonophobia. In contrast there is wide agreement that the pathophysiology of the disorder/symptom complex remains uncertain.