Many Migraineurs have accompanying neck pain during a Migraine attack. For some, neck pain occurs more frequently than nausea. As common as neck pain is for so many Migraineurs, treatment of our attacks is delayed when we discuss the neck pain that's associated with our Migraines.
During the American Headache Society's 53rd Annual Scientific Meeting in June, Teri and I attended many sessions on various scientific topics including a poster presentation devoted to neck muscles and Migraine. This poster detailed what role neck muscles play in Migraine frequency and treatment.
For the study, F.K. Cantor from the National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, used the unrecognized records of 18 patients' (17 female and one male) who had repeated Migraine and neck pain.
- Six patients had acute ipsilateral (one sided) neck pain during a Migraine attack.
- 11 patients reported coincident deterioration of an unconnected chronic neck muscle issue and Migraine severity.
- Seven patients with compressed ipsilateral neck muscles had a stronger Migraine or were able to reproduce Migraine symptoms. One patient also had nausea, dizziness and aura along with the sternocleidomastoid muscle (muscle on side of your neck) compression.
- Trigger point injections and/or physical therapy helped 14 out of the 17 patients who were treated.
- Three out of six of the patients who had neck pain as a symptom of their attack had immediate relief with the use of triptans or beta-blockers.
- 15 patients using different medications (13 used triptans, one used propranolol and one used Topamax) had various degrees of relief with these medications.
The study shows that neck muscles can make a Migraine worse and treating neck pain may improve both acute and chronic Migraines. While a few of these patients had neck pain and Migraine together and had immediate relief with treatment confirms, yet again, that neck pain is an important part of a Migraine attack.
"These observations are consistent with the mechanism proposed by others that heightened input from cervical pain afferents leads to sensitization of dorsal horn neurons resulting in excessive stimulation of the cervical trigeminal nucleus to affect migraine manifestations."
So here again it is being confirmed what Migrainerus already know, if our neck hurts during an attack it most likely is related to our Migraines.
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Resources:
Cantor F.K. "Neck Muscles and Migraine. Research Poster. 53rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society. June, 2011.
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© HealthCentral Network, 2011.
Last updated August 10, 2011.
