Symptoms and treatment of migraine with aura

1 Clinical picture

Associated migraine is a disease characterized by a strong, throbbing headache, usually affecting one part of the head and giving off into the eye. The main distinguishing feature that distinguishes an associated migraine from the usual is the appearance of an aura. Before the attack, it occurs in a quarter of patients suffering from migraine.

There are four stages of migraine with aura that are characterized by the following symptoms:

1. Prodromal period. There is not in all patients, or may be not pronounced. In this phase, there is increased excitability, exacerbation of perception, hyperactivity or depressive state, a decrease in ability to work. These symptoms are manifested during the day preceding the migraine attack.
2. Aura. Symptoms that occur before the attack.
3. Headache. It is acute, pulsating, intense. It localizes in the temporomandibular part of the head on one side, irradiates into the eye. Pain during an attack can go from one part of the head to the other. In most cases, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, autonomic disorders, frequent urination and photophobia.
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4. Recovery period. Each person can manifest in his own way. Some patients experience a state of euphoria, while others feel drowsy and a broken state.

The presence of all four phases during a migraine attack is not a prerequisite. Many patients have no prodromal and recovery period.

2 The onset of an attack

What is an aura is a collection of certain neurological symptoms that occur before the onset of a migraine attack.

It occurs with oxygen deficiency caused by spasm of blood vessels feeding the brain. The condition can last from five minutes to an hour. A headache attack can begin after the aura or after a certain period of time, not exceeding sixty minutes. Many people who suffer from migraine, say that at the time of the gap between the aura and the headache, they feel detached.

3 Visual disorders

Eighty per cent of cases during the aura appear visual disturbances:

• Sparkling dots or fireballs. The effect can build up over a short period of time, and then disappear completely, leaving a blind spot in the middle of the view.
• Outbreaks before the eyes resembling lightning.
• Glowing zigzags in front of the eyes that begin with a small dot and gradually spread to the entire field of view.
• Partial loss of vision in which blind spots can be the size of printed letters and increase to the size of a human face.
• Difficulty with focusing the eyesight.
• Impression that you look at the world through a broken mirror.
• Difficulties in determining the size of surrounding objects, they seem to be much smaller or larger than there is in fact.
• Changing color perception. Objects and people may seem unnatural color. Typically, the symptoms of the visual aura affect both eyes. In some cases, it seems to the person that the visual defects affect only one eye, and then closing it can make sure that the symptoms affect the second one.

• Sensitivity disorder in which tingling or burning occurs at the fingertips. It gradually begins to cover the entire arm, and in a large number of cases covers half the body, including half the face and even the tongue.
• Numbness, appears after tingling.
• Weakness, up to temporary limb paralysis in one half of the body
• Speech disorder, in which a person finds it difficult to find words, speech becomes vague or completely absent.
• Inability to distinguish between letters and numbers.
• Auditory hallucinations.
• Disturbance of smell, while a person begins to feel the smells of which in fact there is not.

There may be several symptoms of migraine with an aura at a time, changing one another or some one of the symptoms. If one of the symptoms of the aura lasts more than seven days, this indicates a complicated course of the disease.

There is also a "beheaded migraine" in which there is no headache after the occurrence of aura. If no migraine headache appears in combination with the aura, this is an excuse to contact the doctor, as this may be a sign of a transient ischemic attack.

In order to diagnose an associated migraine, you need at least two cases of aura, the symptoms of which completely disappear after the end of the attack. The visual symptoms should be the same.

4 Medication therapy

Treatment of migraine with aura is divided into abortive, which prevents the development of migraine paroxysms and relief of seizures. For treatment use:

1. Preparations from the group of non-narcotic analgesics and anti-inflammatory non-steroid agents with the active substance, which are: diclofenac, ibuprofen, paracetamol, acetylsalicylic acid, metamizole, ketorolac.
2. Combined drugs, which include caffeine, narcotic analgesics or antispasmodics: Citramon, Spazgan, Tempalgin, Calfagin, Solpadein, Pentalgin.
3. Narcotic analgesics: Nalbuphine, Tramadol. They are prescribed in rare cases with migraine attacks of high intensity. Drugs are suitable for occasional use, since they can cause addiction.
4. Triptans. In case of severe migraine attacks, it is necessary to start with preparations of this series, not with analgesics. These include: Sumamigren, Zomig, Rizatriptan, Antimigren, Relpaks. Medications are used immediately after the patient has felt that he has a migraine attack. Repeated reception of the drug is possible two hours after the onset of the attack.
5. Preparations for ergot. These medicines include Ergotamine, Dihydroergotamine, they are usually released in the form of nasal sprays and used as monotherapy and in combination with analgesics.
6. Sleeping Pills. Since migraine attacks stop when falling asleep, prescribe drugs such as Relanium, Sibazon, Flurazepam.
7. Antiemetics such as metoclopramide, Cerucal, Domperidone, Motilium. Use for nausea and vomiting accompanying attack.
8. Antidepressants. Used for preventive treatment. The most effective and safe drugs of the new generation are: Velaxin, Velafax, Ixel.
9. Anticonvulsants: valproate and topiramate. After the beginning of treatment within a month, the amount of migraine attacks with aura is significantly reduced.

5 Methods of traditional medicine

To stop and prevent migraine attacks with aura, use methods of acupuncture, massage or recipes of traditional medicine.

Recipe 1. 150 gr.grated horseradish, 300 gr.sugar, 500 gr. Oranges sliced ​​with peel pour red wine which will take a half liter. The mixture boil for half an hour on a water bath, drain and consume three hundred milliliters a day.

Recipe 2. Shake the egg and pour a glass of hot milk. Eat twice a day, ten days.

In order to correctly establish a diagnosis, you need to see a doctor.