Light Hurts Even Blind Migraine Sufferers, Study Reveals How

[HuckleB]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/175561.php

"Researchers in the US believe they have discovered why light can make the pain of migraine worse, even in some blind people: they found photoreceptors in a part of the brain called the thalamus appear to process both light and pain, revealing for the first time that it is possible for neural pathways for pain and non-image-forming light sensitivity to converge.

...

Burstein told the media that up to 90 per cent of migraine sufferers experience photophobia, where light makes the migrane hurt more. "We had no clue in the world where in the world light and pain talk to each other in the brain," he said. "They have completely different pathways in the brain."

...

"We found that exacerbation of migraine headache by light is prevalent among blind individuals who maintain non-image-forming photoregulation in the face of massive rod/cone degeneration."

Burstein said this suggested that the optic nerve is critical to photophobia, ie for the light to exarcebate the headache.

..."

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Read the whole piece to get the full message from this study. Another step forward.

[salvorhardin]

1. NPR's Morning Edition covered this too

Burstein says the results with blind people helped his team design a series of studies in rats to track the signals from retinal ganglion cells. The studies showed that the signals go to "brain areas that have nothing to do with visual perception."

Some of these areas probably help the brain maintain circadian rhythms, Burstein says. But others are involved in pain, including migraine pain.

That would explain how light could intensify the pain of a migraine even in someone who is blind, he says.

Burstein says the finding probably won't lead to new treatments for migraine pain itself. But it could help scientists find a drug that would let migraine patients leave the confines of a dark room without feeling more pain.
Story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122406376
Transcript: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=122406376
MP3: http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2010/01/20100111_me_12.mp3 (3:34)

[greenbird]

2. Fascinating.

Thanks for this. Another piece in the puzzle.

[ThomCat]

3. I saw a new rheumatologist today who might be treating me for my

fibromialgia, basically by default because no other specialty will claim fibromialgia as part of their domain. I have frequent migraines, and when I take meds to combat the fibro the migraines become daily. Migraines are my most frequent side effect to most meds, especially to all meds available for fibro. It makes treating the fibro impossible.

So any new understanding of migraines that helps treat Migraines better means hope for fewer migraines, and then might also mean I could someday be treated the fibro too.

What makes this even more important: This doctor thinks that the fibro is actively linked to migraines. I have known anecdotally that people with fibro tend to get migraines but I don't know if doctors have documented that link and proven it in any way.

I hope other doctors are also exploring this possibility. That might be one more bit of information to help puzzle out migraines. And fibro too.

It is amazing how little doctors really know about headaches, and pain. :(

[HuckleB]

4. I'm sorry to read about your struggles.

The brain/nervous system is very difficult to study, and that is probably a big reason we are so far behind in treatment for pain, psychiatric disorders and other nervous system issues.

Take care.