OBJECTIVE To provide updated evidence-based recommendations for the preventive treatment of migraine headache. The clinical question addressed was: What pharmacologic therapies are proven effective for migraine prevention? METHODS The authors analyzed published studies from June 1999 to May 2009 using a structured review process to classify the evidence relative to the efficacy of various med...

Migraine is one of the most common neurological disorders, affecting women disproportionally at a rate of 3:1. Prior to puberty, boys and girls are equally affected, but the female preponderance emerges after puberty. Migraine pathophysiology is not fully understood, and although the hormonal effect of estrogen is significant, other factors are at play. This article will focus on the hormonal i...

Migraine is a highly prevalent and disabling disease. The drugs prescribed for migraine prophylaxis can have intolerable side effects or can be ineffective. Neuromodulation techniques are increasingly used in neurology. Transcutaneous supraorbital nerve stimulation is effective in episodic migraine prevention, whereas vagus nerve stimulation provides interesting results in acute migraine therap...

Migraine is a primary disorder of the brain with peripheral consequences. The prevalence of migraine is as high as 18% in the general populations. The association between migraine and stroke has been well documented in many case-control and cohort studies. This association has been stronger in patients with migraine with aura compared to migraine without aura and dependent on sex, age, frequenc...

Studies have shown that migraine may have a major genetic component. Meanwhile, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene has been implicated as a genetic factor associated with migraine. We designed a case-control study to investigate the association between ACE and migraine in 240 migraine patients and 200 healthy controls, matched by age and sex. There was no significant difference in allelic...

PURPOSE To examine the long-term risk of essential tremor (ET) in migraine. METHODS Using population-based administrative data from a subset of the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan, we identified 22,696 newly diagnosed migraineurs (mean age 44.5 years) and a matched migraine-free cohort of 90,784 individuals in the period 2000-2008. Multivariable Cox proportional ...

Migraine with aura is one of the major subtypes of migraine, and can be associated with ischaemic brain infarction. Use of oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) increases the risk of infarction in this type of migraine. Seizures and migraine also have a complex relationship, one element of which is migrainetriggered seizures. We report a case of bilateral occipital lobe infarction and migraine-trigge...

Migraine and stroke are common neurovascular disorders which share underlying physiological processes. Increased risks of ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, and subclinical ischemic lesions have been consistently found in migraineurs. Three possible associations are suggested. One is that underlying pathophysiology of migraine can lead to ischemic stroke. Second, common comorbidities between ...

Migraine headache is strongly influenced by reproductive events that occur throughout the lifespan of women. Each of these reproductive events has a different "hormonal milieu," which might modulate the clinical course of migraine headache. Estrogen and progesterone can be preventative or provocative for migraine headache under different circumstances depending on their absolute serum levels, c...

Neurologic symptoms are a prominent and often disturbing component of the migraine syndrome in many patients. Collectively termed "aura," migraine-related neurologic symptoms include visual, sensory, language, and motor disturbance. They occur in about one quarter of migraine patients, are classically transient, and are thought to occur as the result of cortical phenomena. Recently, motor sympt...