Research Links Migraines and Brain Lesions

Researchers have identified brain lesions in migraine victims, a finding that could indicate the severe headaches are a progressive brain-damaging disease in some cases, according to a study released Tuesday.

The research, which could have implications for treatment, involved 295 Dutch adults aged 30 to 60 who had migraines, including some who had visual disturbances. They were compared with 140 similar people who were migraine-free.

The researchers found that for patients with both migraines and visual problems, the risk of cerebral infarction -- the death of brain tissue caused by lack of oxygen when a blood clot blocks an artery -- was 13 times higher than for the group without migraines. The problem increased with migraine frequency.

Patients with migraine but no eye trouble had more than seven times the risk of infarction than would normally be expected.

The study was published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Assn.

An author of the paper, Lenore Launer of the National Institutes of Health, said: “It means we may need to shift the way people think about migraines. They’re thought of now as episodic -- people get a headache and that’s it.”

The problem may be chronic, she said, and “one of the future questions to ask is about the path and type of treatment that may be most useful.”

She said the study did not determine whether the lesions were the result or the cause of the migraines.