An overview of headaches besides migraines is found here.

Migraine headaches are a common disease often misunderstood by patients -- and even by many physicians. Dr. Loftus has written this section to the level of intelligent surfers who desire to learn more about migraine than most typical web sites offer. The information here is felt to be true and accurate by Dr. Loftus but at least in some areas there are neurologists who would disagree with some of the information presented.

What are migraine headaches?

Headache is a symptom and migraine headache is a diagnosis. As there is no specific test for migraine headache, the disease migraine is currently defined by the Internal Classification of Headache Disorders - 2nd edition (replacing the prior I.H.S. criteria). Migraine headaches were further subdivided into Migraine without aura, Migraine with aura, Familial hemiplegic migraine, Basilar migraine, and even Migraine aura without headache. The purpose of the classification system is not to properly diagnose all those patients whose headaches are migraine headaches, but rather, to insure that patients who are diagnosed with Migraine headache according to this definition do not have a different disease causing their headache. Therefore, in daily practice, physicians may diagnose patients who do not exactly meet criteria as having migraine headache. If you, however, have been diagnosed with migraine headache and do not seem to even resemble the following diagnostic criteria, then the diagnosis is likely to be disputed by a neurologist.

Conversely, if you do meet the criteria for migraine headache, then you likely do have migraine headache even if you have been told you have recurrent sinus or tension headaches.

There are several web pages to this series. The formal definition of migraine headache, and probable migraine are given in their various sections. There is a page on our current thinking of the cause of migraine headache as well as sources of pain. For those interested in numbers, there is a page on epidemiology of migraine headache as well.

Treatment for migraine headache is divided into migraine headache prevention and acute migraine headache treatment.

There are articles that are geared to patients about how one can properly treat all of the headaches that migraine patients have. In addition, common mistakes patients and physicians make when treating migraines are covered as well. There is a page on childhood and pediatric migraine headaches since this group seems to be overly ignored. For those of you on the fence as to whether it is worth seeing a physician for headache treatment, please see this page.

Finally, there is an on-line computer aided headache analysis program that takes a complete single headache history and prepares a printout and analysis for you to take to your physician. With this history and a proper exam, you can be properly treated for your headaches. A more thorough headache history program will have to wait for better funding.

While the internet is filled with lots of information, both good and bad, Dr. Loftus believes there is still a place for books. Particularly to cover those areas that physicians tend to not spend enough time addressing. In this regard, I recommend an excellent book for patients with migraines, the Migraines for Dummies book. In the interest of complete disclosure, the author does thank me in the acknowledgement section. I have not met the author but she emailed me multiple questions about migraines and apparently found me helpful enough to be mentioned.