Posted by Todd (64.34.202.197) on February 11, 2001 at 17:39:02:
My Mom just sent me a newspaper article about research into the cause of migraines. To summarize, there is evidence that the cause of migraine is "abnormally excitable neurons" which fire off at the slightest trigger.
In the same article, there was mention of a (unnamed) seminar where family physicians were presented with migraine symptoms and only 45% correctly diagnosed the disorder.
Part of this is due to the fact (according to the article) that only 1/3 of migraine sufferers experience aura. Docs figure no aura = no migraine.
Okay, so why am I posting about M here? Well, several things struck me from this article:
1- If only 45% of GP's can recognize migraine, is it any wonder CH is frequently mis-diagnosed?
2- If 2/3 of migraineurs don't have auras, might this have led to some migraineurs being mis-diagnosed with CH? Might this, in turn, explain some of the variation in attacks (particularly the more extreme cases)?
3- If migraines are shown not to be vascular, but rather neurological in origin, then perhaps migraine and CH are more closely related then we think. This is a good thing, since migraine receives most of the attention, research wise.
Just something to think about.
KTSSU,
T