Symptoms of Migraine

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Migraine attacks often start when you wake up in the morning. If they start during the day, the attack tends to take several hours to build up.There are five distinct stages to migraine. Not all individuals experience all the stages:

Prodromal (pre-headache) or early warning stage

Some people experience strange feelings, including changes in mood, energy levels, behaviour and appetite (including food cravings) and as well as aches and pains several hours or even days before an attack.

Aura

In about 1 in 6 cases, a migraine is preceded by a stage of neurological (brain) disturbance called an aura. Symptoms include visual disturbances such as flashes of light or blind spots (areas that you canâ€™t see), difficulty focusing and seeing things as though through a broken mirror. This stage may also include numbness and â€˜pins and needlesâ€™ in the arms, face, tongue or lips. There may be quite widespread weakness of muscles, usually affecting only one side of the body. Speech may also be temporarily affected. This stage normally lasts around 15 minutes to an hour.

Headache stage

In most cases there is no aura stage; the attack starts with the headache. This is usually a pulsating or throbbing pain on one side of the head. There is often nausea or vomiting, extreme sensitivity to bright light and loud sounds, and a strong desire to lie down in a darkened room. There may be stiffness of the neck and shoulders, tingling or stiffness in the limbs, an inability to concentrate and difficulty in speaking. Some people experience indigestion or diarrhoea. In rare cases there may be paralysis or loss of consciousness. This stage lasts for around 4-72 hours.

Resolution stage

Most attacks gradually fade away. Some people find the headache stops suddenly after they have been sick. Sleep often relieves the symptoms.

Postdromal (after headache) or recovery phase

Lastly there may be a stage of exhaustion, tiredness and weakness.

The term â€˜status migrainosusâ€™ refers to a migraine that lasts longer than 72 hours, when all the other symptoms disappear but the headache remains.