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Some aspects on the pathophysiology of migraine and a review of device therapies for migraine and cluster headache

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Abstract

Migraine is a common, severe disease, affecting the brain and blood vessels, causing much pain, time missed from work and family, and severe disability. It affects approximately 12% of most Western populations studied and affects women three times more than men. Cluster headache is a much less common dysfunction of the hypothalamus, involving the sphenopalatine ganglion and other areas; it causes more frequent, shorter, and even more intense pain than migraine. The pain usually comes in cycles and is associated with ipsilateral autonomic features and associated with irritability and inability to stay still. It affects less than 0.1% of the population and is slightly more prevalent in men than women. Although we have some acute care and preventive medications for both types of headache, no treatment is optimal for each patient and some will not respond well or have significant adverse events to existing therapies.

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Author notes

  1. Alan M. Rapoport and Lars Edvinsson contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Alan M. Rapoport

  2. Department of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Lars Edvinsson

Authors
  1. Alan M. Rapoport
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  2. Lars Edvinsson
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Correspondence to Alan M. Rapoport.

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Rapoport, A.M., Edvinsson, L. Some aspects on the pathophysiology of migraine and a review of device therapies for migraine and cluster headache. Neurol Sci 40 (Suppl 1), 75–80 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-019-03828-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-019-03828-0

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