New insight into migraine causes - Boots WebMD

31^st May 2013 -- Danish researchers may have discovered a new cause of migraines, which could lead to new treatments in the future.

Around one in four women and one in 12 men in the UK get migraines.

Causes of migraines

Until now, doctors thought some migraine pain was due to arteries on the outside of the skull expanding, called a vascular headache.

Now, a team from Danish Headache Centre, Glostrup Hospital, Denmark believe nerve fibres around the blood vessels may become extra sensitive, causing pain.

The hospital is calling the research a "groundbreaking study."

Migraine MRI study

The researchers reached their new conclusions following a small trial in which MRI scans were taken of the arteries of 19 women during migraine attacks which occurred naturally.

Trials of this type are hard to arrange, making sure someone is close to an MRI scanner at the time of their migraine. The participants also have to be willing to travel while experiencing migraine symptoms, including nausea and pain.

By studying the MRI scans, researchers found arteries on the outside of the skull did not expand during migraine attacks. Arteries inside the skull expanded slightly on the side affected by the migraine pain.

The study also raises questions about how the medicinesumatriptan works for migraines if pain is not due to expanding arteries. Sumatriptan is called a triptan medicine. This makes the blood vessels around the brain become narrower, reversing the widening of blood vessels which were thought to be part of the cause of some migraines.

Reaction

The study is published in Lancet Neurology. In a comment to accompany the research, Andrew Charles from the Headache Research and Treatment Program at the University of California in the US says: "Old ideas in medicine die hard, especially so with the vascular hypothesis of migraine. These findings help to clear the path toward a better understanding of the true causes of migraine, as well as the mechanisms by which its triggers and treatments work."

Commenting on the findings on Migraine Action's website, Dr Andrew Dowson, chairman of the charity's medical advisory board says: "It appears that some important points are raised in the recent paper, including the fact that blood vessels may not dilate during attacks and that the nerve fibres around the nerves become hypersensitive. The observations may well offer another model for further migraine research and hence new treatments might emerge. In the meantime a better understanding of the current research and how it affects clinical practice is the priority."

Funding for the research included money from the industrial Lundbeck Foundation and the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk Foundation, but these organisations did not have influence over the study's design.

Source: http://www.webmd.boots.com/migraines-headaches/news/20130531/new-insight-into-migraine-causes

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