Neck Pain is the Cause of Worsening Migraine
October 14, 2009 by dean · Leave a Comment
Neck Disorders can be part of the migraine process
How refreshing to find other researchers who also believe that cervicogenic (neck) disorders can be part of the migraine process – we are few and far between!
Calhoun and Ford (whose research I have quoted recently), investigated the incidence of neck pain on wakening in 113 migraineurs. They found that the more chronic the migraine the more likely that neck pain would be present on wakening; and that the presence of neck pain on wakening increases the likelihood of waking with a migraine as well!
They concluded that either neck pain is a ‘migraine’ in the neck and/or that the presence of neck pain without a migraine is likely to lead to migraine becoming more chronic.
My clinical experience includes treating patients just with pain in the neck but whose neck pain responded to the ‘triptans’ i.e. their ‘migraine’ was in their neck!
Cheers
Dean
(Calhoun AH, Ford S. The prevalence of neck pain on awakening in a cohort of migraineurs Cephalalgia 2009;29(Suppl. 1):1–166)
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