European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 13, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Studies unmask origins of brutal a migraines the by suspect by Jane e. Brody new York times Igraine headache Long mired in popular myths and medical misconceptions is is last yielding its miserable secrets to neurologists who study the cellular and chemical functions of Iho brain. A half Century after migraine was labelled a psychosomatic syndrome involving constriction and swelling of blood vessels in the head research has revealed that in stems from a biological abnormality of nerve cells and chemical messengers deep in the brain. Scientists say the new View of migraine As a biological disease of the Central nervous system could eventually help explain the myriad la Clors that logger attacks and the strange spectrum of possible symptoms. Exports beit Evo in also explains How available drugs work to prevent or reduce migraine pain and will guide them toward still More Cut Clive drugs in the future. Migraine he Mast debilitating common form of headache afflicts perhaps 1b million americans who collectively lose 64 million workdays a year and Cost the nation $50 billion in lost work time and medical expenses. A migraine typically afflicts one Side of the head lasts Tor hours or Days and May recur As infrequently As once every other month or As often As daily in addition to experiencing throbbing or piercing pain hat can approach the. Intolerable victims May become. Nauseated and intolerant to lights and. Sounds. They May experience distortions in cognitive functions sleep disturbances and mood disorders. While reactions to stress can often touch olt attacks in people who Are prone to migraines so can a Host of physical and chemical stimuli from Bright lights and changes in atmospheric pressure to hormones and foods. And while women represent about two thirds of migraine sufferers the studies. Show this mainly results from hormonal factors that bring on migraine attacks in susceptible women not trom emotional. Instability or an undue tendency to Malinger or complain. ". The new approach to migraine developed Over the last several years has already stimulated a hurry of advanced neurological studies that have. Begun to explain the Basic mechanisms o these devastating headaches. The studies Are also expected to result in More effective and safer methods of preventing and in caring migraines. Preliminary tests Are now being conducted for a new drug that is believed to abort a developing migraine by correcting a dysfunction in brain chemistry Early results indicate that the drug a compound produced by an English company Glaxo group research and known Only by a serial number gr43175, i9 both highly effective in relieving migraine and. Unlike other migraine drugs remarkably free of unwanted Side effects. The Glaxo drug As Well As other similar new compounds can stimulate at least one of the irony actions of serotonin a nerve cell messenger that becomes depleted in the brain during a migraine attack. Most experts now believe that some disturbance in serotonin function in the brain is a Central component if not the primary culprit in producing Iho pain and other symptoms of migraine. Some neurologists soy serotonin undoubtedly acts in concert Wilh other brain chemicals gone awry or. Seymour Solomon director of the headache clinic at Montefiore medical Center in the Bronx n.y., said a Host of biochemical changes have been found in the brain during migraine attacks. What they All mean is still up in the air. At the moment we can t separate primary from secondary changes the More we study migraine the More Complex it one thing is Clear said or. Neil Hugh Raskin a neurologist at the univ Cisily of California school of Medicine in san Francisco. The notions Aboul migraine formulated in 1938 were simplistic and. Wrong. These notions developed by or. Harold Wollf a prestigious and influential headache researcher hold that the brain does not feel pain and that migraine symptoms resulted from a stress induced constriction of blood vessels inside lha brain and a dilation of blood vessels outside the brain. was a neat Little package thai fit into the psychosomatic orientation of the Day bul it was dead wrong said Raskin author of the professional textbook headache. The Best current theory said or Joel it. Saper director of the Michigan headache and neurological Institute in Ann Arbor holds that people Are born thou men Treen inf body functions including sleep mood. A digestive process Tarj i Pecori air Tucson w no on or Hood be Jiali. In my Fortine flecks. The sesame junctions Nan 90 awry leading Scaler items in Sui Pacl in serotonin i action in Ilie brain Are ctn Vady it. Ohr ii in causing the . 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