Definition of migraine
plural migraines
1 a
: a condition marked by recurring moderate to severe headache with throbbing pain that usually lasts from four hours to three days, typically begins on one side of the head but may spread to both sides, is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light or sound, and is sometimes preceded by an aura and is often followed by fatigue
- Migraine affects three times as many women as men.
- —The Journal of the American Medical Association
- About 20 percent of migraine sufferers experience an aura as the first symptom of an attack. The aura may be a pulsing star of light, or a dance of geometric forms across the visual field …
- —Natalie Angier
b
: a condition that is a variant form of the typical migraine but in which headache is absent or not a prominent symptom:
(1)
: a condition in which an aura involving visual disturbances (such as diplopia, scotoma, or tunnel vision) is the main symptom and is not followed by headache — called also
acephalgic migraine, silent migraine
(2)
: a condition that is marked by episodic bodily dysfunction (such as cyclic vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness, vertigo, or unilateral weakness or paralysis) and may be accompanied by headache
- abdominal migraine
- vestibular migraine
- In retinal migraine, repeated episodes of unilateral visual disorder occur with or without headache.
- —Sid Gilman
2
: an episode or attack of migraine
- Most patients use a class of drugs known as "triptans," to relieve occasional migraines. But triptans don't work for 20% to 30% of patients.
- —Tara Parker-Pope
