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The 9 types of migraine and their symptoms

The 9 types of migraine and their symptoms

March 28, 2024

One of the most common health problems in the general population are headaches, technically known as "headaches". The two most common and well-known headache classes are tension headache and migraine, also called migraine.

Migraines are divided into several types according to their most representative symptoms and their main characteristics.

  • Related article: "The 13 types of headaches (and their symptoms and causes)"

What is migraine?

Migraine or migraine is the third most frequent disorder worldwide after dental caries and tension headache. It often involves some degree of personal involvement and even incapacitation, if the intensity and frequency are high.


Together with tension-type or trigeminal-autonomic headaches, migraines form the group of primary headaches . This denomination indicates that they are not a consequence of other diseases or alterations but that the headache itself constitutes the center of the problem.

Migraine is characterized by the presence of headaches of moderate or severe intensity that are usually of the pulsatile type, affect one side of the head and last between 2 hours and 3 days. The pain may be accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea and vomiting or sensitivity to light (photophobia) and sound (phonophobia).

In approximately 15-30% of migraine cases this it is accompanied by what we call "aura" , a set of neurological symptoms that precede, accompany or follow the headache. These include altered vision, numbness of one of the hands, general fatigue (asthenia), neck stiffness and pain and the increase or decrease in the level of activity.


However, to understand more about the characteristics of the disorder, we must look at the different types of migraine.

Types of migraine and their symptoms

Migraines can be classified into different types, both when we refer to specific episodes and chronic disorders. These categories depend on variables such as origin, symptoms and the presence or absence of aura.

1. Migraine without aura

Migraine without aura is the most common type of headache . This is the name given to unilateral and pulsatile headaches that are accompanied by symptoms such as nausea and intolerance to light and sound, but not to the migraine aura.

Generally the pain is located on the forehead and on the temples. In children it is more usual to be bilateral, while unilateral pain is characteristic of adolescents and adults.

To diagnose this subtype of migraine requires that five episodes have been given; if there has been less, the disorder is classified as "migraine without probable aura". If the frequency is very high we will talk about chronic migraine.


2. With typical aura and headache

In migraines with aura, there are transient symptoms of motor, verbal, sensory, like tingling and numbness, or visual, such as scintillating scotoma, in which a region of the visual field is illuminated by altering the vision . The visual aura is the most common type.

In these cases the aura is given at the same time as the headache or less than 1 hour before. It is common in the same person to combine migraines with and without aura, as well as migraines with headache and without it.

3. With typical aura without headache

This disorder is diagnosed when there are recurrent episodes of aura, usually visual, without an associated headache . Although migraines with headache may also occur, in this subtype the symptoms of the aura over pain predominate, which may be absent or non-migrainous.

4. With trunk aurabrain

Migraine of the brainstem has characteristic symptoms such as vertigo, lack of coordination (ataxia), transitory auditory deficit (hearing loss), tinnitus or tinnitus, double vision (diplopia) and difficulty in articulating words (dysarthria).

Normally, the core-synaptic symptoms occur in conjunction with those of the aura; this is why this type of migraine is classified within migraines with aura.

  • Related article: "Trunk of the encephalon: functions and structures"

5. Family hemiplegic

The most identifiable symptom of hemiplegic migraine is motor weakness, which is part of the aura in this type of migraine and is sometimes maintained for weeks. Other typical symptoms of the aura are also present, especially visual and sensorial.

Familial hemiplegic migraine is diagnosed when one or more first-degree relatives have also suffered episodes of this type of migraine. It is frequent that they appear trunk symptoms, confusion, fever and decreased level of consciousness .

In turn, the family hemiplegic migraine is divided into three subtypes depending on the genes that cause the disorder.

6. Hemiplegic sporadic

Cases of sporadic hemiplegic migraine have the same symptoms as those of the family but the disorder has not occurred in close relatives , so it is not possible to confirm its genetic origin.

7. Retiniana

In episodes of retinal migraine the vision of one of the eyes is altered during the aura . There may be phenomena such as light perception (photopsia), loss of vision in a part of the visual field (scotoma) or transient blindness (amaurosis). Sometimes there is no headache.

8. Chronic migraine

Chronic or recurrent migraine is diagnosed in cases in which migraine headache it persists for more than three months and half of the days of each month appear .

Any type of migraine disorder will be classified as chronic if these criteria of duration and frequency are met, and the episodes between the different types of migraine that we have described may vary. Other headaches can also occur, particularly tension headaches.

9. Probable migraine

The category "probable headache" is a catch-all that includes Episodes that do not meet the diagnostic criteria of the previous types or of other types of headache. These migraines can be diverse in nature and are subdivided into migraines without probable aura and migraines with probable aura.


What Causes A Migraine? (March 2024).


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