What is a chronic migraine?

What is a chronic migraine?

Chronic migraine, a condition characterized by the experience of migrainous headache on at least 15 days per month, is highly disabling. Patients with chronic migraine present to primary care, are often referred for management to secondary care, and make up a large proportion of patients in specialist headache clinics.

What is the difference between migraine and chronic migraine?

Episodic migraine (EM) is characterized by those with migraine who have 0 to 14 headache days per month, while chronic migraine (CM) is characterized by 15 or more headache days per month.

What causes chronic migraine?

Conditions that could cause chronic migraines include: traumatic brain injury. inflammation or other problems with blood vessels in the brain, including stroke. infections such as meningitis.

Is chronic migraine considered a disease?

Chronic migraine is a highly disabling disease with a great impact on socioeconomic functioning and quality of life of migraine patients. Chronic migraine usually evolves from episodic migraine that gradually increases in attack frequency, supporting the view of migraine as a spectrum disorder.

How many migraines is considered chronic?

Chronic migraine is defined as having at least 15 headache days a month, with at least 8 days of having headaches with migraine features, for more than 3 months. Chronic headache begins as less frequent headache episodes that gradually change into a more frequent headache pattern.

What do chronic migraines feel like?

Overview. A migraine is a headache that can cause severe throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation, usually on one side of the head. It’s often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.

Do chronic migraines ever go away?

For a lot of people chronic migraine develops gradually with migraine attacks becoming more frequent over time. Around 2.5 out of 100 people with episodic migraine will develop chronic migraine each year. For some people (around 2 out of 10) chronic migraine will go into remission within 2 years of becoming chronic.

Can chronic migraines cause brain damage?

Many of the patients I see with migraine are concerned that the migraine attacks or the disease is causing permanent damage. To the best of our understanding, that’s completely wrong. Migraine patients do not have to be worried about long-term brain damage. It simply doesn’t happen.

Can migraines damage the brain?

When you look at the population-based evidence, the really good studies, there is no good evidence that those changes in the brain are even lesions, because they don’t cause anything and there is no evidence at all that migraine does excess damage to the brain.

What is the best treatment for chronic migraines?

Triptans. Prescription drugs such as sumatriptan (Imitrex, Tosymra) and rizatriptan (Maxalt, Maxalt-MLT) are used to treat migraine because they block pain pathways in the brain. Taken as pills, shots or nasal sprays, they can relieve many symptoms of migraine.

Can you see migraine on MRI?

An MRI can’t diagnose migraines, cluster, or tension headaches, but it can help doctors rule out other medical conditions that may cause your symptoms, such as: A brain tumor. An infection in your brain, called an abscess. The buildup of fluid in the brain, called hydrocephalus.

Does chronic migraine qualify for disability?

If you experience chronic migraine that makes it difficult or impossible for you to work you can file a claim for Social Security disability benefits. You will need to provide medical documentation of your illness in order for your claim to be approved.