MIGRAINE
Pathophysiological
background of the disease
Recurrent migraine is a common, debilitating, and highly elusive
disorder that is notoriously difficult to treat. The condition is
characterized by recurrent, enduring, unilateral, and pulsating
headaches often accompanied by nausea, light and sound sensitivity, and
sometimes preceded by a period of altered sensory experience (often
visual hallucination) called auras. The origin of migraine is argued to
be vascular and/or neurogenic but this is still under investigation
[81], but the aura symptoms are known to result from a wave of
neuron depolarization and subsequent depression propagating across the
cortex, whereas the pain results from the activation of the
trigeminovascular system and meningeal blood vessels, both through
unconfirmed mechanisms [82].