Some Clinical Aspects of Migraine

Abstract

THE OBJECTS of the present study were to ascertain the following facts. The first objective was to ascertain the frequency of epilepsy (and other impairment of consciousness), allergic disturbances, and childhood vomiting attacks in migrainous patients, compared with patients suffering from tension headache. Kinnier Wilson 1 quotes 22 papers which had appeared up to 1932 discussing the relationship between epilepsy and migraine. Lennox and Lennox 2 found that 6.5% of 415 patients presenting with the symptoms of migraine were also epileptic. In 1960 a retrospective analysis was made of 500 patients with migraine at a neurological clinic by Selby and Lance, 3 who found that 4.5% of 396 migrainous patients were subject to major seizures at the time of their migraine attacks. Another 14% reported some disturbance of consciousness such as syncope or confusion. It is possible that these figures may have been biased by the fact that patients