By
Dan Vergano, Medical Tribune News Service
WASHINGTON,
D.C. -- Weather forecasters might need to add a migraine report
to their predictions, according to scientific findings presented
Wednesday.
At
the American Psychiatric Association meeting here, researchers
led by Dr. Galina Mindlin of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia
discussed the results of their comparative study of 20 migraine
sufferers, healthy individuals and the weather. Tracking headache
patterns against meteorological variables, the scientists found
that migraines are more likely when atmospheric pressure rises
and, to a lesser extent, when temperature increases.
For
comparison, Mindlin and her colleagues included the weather reactions
of 40 healthy individuals and 30 people who suffered from anxiety
disorders in the study.
Migraines
are recurring, excruciatingly painful headaches that are often
felt on only one side of the head. Some 16 million people in the
United States suffer migraines, according to the National Headache
Foundation (NHF) in Chicago.
``Sometimes they [migraine sufferers] can predict the weather,''
Mindlin noted. Patients who perceive a shimmering aura around
the edges of their vision before a headache, a not-uncommon occurrence
for migraine sufferers, were able in the study to predict meteorological
changes with particular accuracy, she added.
Overall,
75 percent of the migraine patients reported that they suffered
the debilitating headaches on days with atmospheric pressure increases.
High winds triggered the same number of episodes, according to
Mindlin. Compared with normal individuals, electrical activity
in the migraine victims' brains as measured by an electroencephalogram
was less organized and reached a higher intensity during the weather
shifts, the researchers said.
Many
migraine victims believe that storms affect their headaches, but
results of past studies on such a connection have been mixed,
according to Dr. Seymour Diamond of the Diamond Headache Clinic
in Chicago. ``As a clinician, though, I believe they really happen,''
he said. Current medications for migraines work more effectively
the sooner they are used during an attack, he added, so patients
can use weather changes as a headache warning signs.
Mindlin
agreed physicians should considering telling their migraine patients
to take pain relievers and other short-term medications on days
when the weather shifts.
``People
are smart and migraines are horrible,'' said Dr. Nada Logan Stotland
of the Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago. ``When people
face something horrible, they think of everything that seems to
trigger the experience.'' Doctors should listen carefully to their
patients' descriptions of events that seem to set off migranes,
and not disregard them as simple folk beliefs, she added.
Changes
in the weather also triggered headaches in the anxiety patients,
said Mindlin, but these people experienced attacks when the atmospheric
pressure dropped.
Atmospheric
alterations may trigger migraines by causing electrical changes
in people's brains, or perhaps by affecting blood vessels, Mindlin
suggested. Neurologists studying migraine victims have associated
a sudden dilation of blood vessels in and around the brain with
the attacks. Some studies have noted similar weather-related effects
in people suffering from clogged blood vessels, she noted.
Interestingly,
people in families that took a particular interest in the weather
experienced more migraines, the researchers said. ``They were
stressed and anxious about the weather in general,'' Mindlin explained.
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