- About 17% of women and 5% of men in the United States have experienced migraine symptoms.
- Experts say staying up to date with the latest diagnostic and preventative methods for migraine headaches is key for managing the condition.
- They add that medications might be the best option for people who have chronic migraine.
Migraine affects more than
Women are three times more likely to have the condition than men. In the United States, about
Over the past few decades, methods for diagnosing and preventing these painful headaches have changed significantly.
Modern diagnostic methods may include clinical observation and neuroimaging while preventative methods range from dietary and lifestyle recommendations to
Medical News Today spoke with five experts to learn more about how migraines are diagnosed and how they may be prevented.
Dr. Medhat Mikhael, a pain management specialist and medical director of the non-operative program at the Spine Health Center at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in California says diagnosing migraine is different from other types of headache.
“Migraine is a clinical diagnosis and it has a clinical criteria that differentiates it from other headaches,” he told Medical News Today. “Some of these criteria include being unilateral, throbbing, moderate to severe in intensity, and aggravated by physical activity associated with non-headache symptoms like nausea, vomiting and/or sensitivity to light and sound- known as photophobia and phonophobia.”
A test known as the ID Migraine Screener looks for three key migraine-associated features, including photophobia, functional impairment, and nausea. A 2003 study that first described this screening tool found it had a sensitivity of
Dr. Megan Tudor Donnelly, the lead…
Read the full article here