Lack of training is a pervasive problem, says neurologist Peter Goadsby, M.D., Ph.D., director of the University of California, San Francisco Headache Program.
"If physicians aren't exposed to current information, they have to fill in the blanks themselves," he explains.
The result: Along with debilitating symptoms, migraine patients often endure a variety of myths about the condition.
If you suffer from migraines, it's important to stay informed. Here, Lifescript's Health Detective separates fact from fiction.
Migraine pain myth #1: Migraines are just bad headaches.
Reality check: Not so! Migraine is a syndrome in which "multiple symptoms often occur simultaneously because of a cascade of brain events," says Joel R. Saper, M.D., director of the Michigan Head-Pain & Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Those brain events release pain-producing inflammatory substances around the nerves and blood vessels of the head.
The cause is unknown, but the result isn't: Disabling symptoms that often send sufferers to bed.
Interestingly, sometimes people don't have pain, though severe pain is the most common symptom of a migraine. In such cases, people often have visual auras and other migraine symptoms, such as nausea.
"But if they do [have pain], it might be minor compared to the drama of nausea, stroke-like symptoms and memory changes," Dr. Saper says.
Though ordinary headaches result from a narrowing of blood vessels and can often be eased with aspirin, migraines are caused by the expansion of blood vessels. Certain treatments may provide migraine relief, but there's no cure.
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