Signs and Symptoms

The signs & signs of migraine vary among patients. Therefore, what a patient experiences before, in the coursework of & after an assault cannot be defined exactly. The seven phases of a migraine assault listed below are common but not necessarily experienced by all migraine sufferers. Additionally, the phases experienced & the signs experienced in the coursework of them can vary from one migraine assault to another in the same migraineur:

1. The prodrome, which occurs hours or days before the headache.
2. The aura, which immediately precedes the headache.
3. The pain phase, also called headache phase.
4. The postdrome.
[edit] Prodrome phase
Prodromal signs occur in 40–60% of migraineurs (migraine sufferers). This phase may consist of altered mood, irritability, depression or euphoria, fatigue, yawning, excessive sleepiness, craving for definite food (e.g. chocolate), stiff muscles ( in the neck), hot ears, constipation or diarrhea, increased urination, & other visceral signs.[13] These signs usually precede the headache phase of the migraine assault by several hours or days, & experience teaches the patient or observant relatives how to detect that a migraine assault is near.
[edit] Aura phase
Screenshot of a YouTube video showing a computer simulation of visual field defects in the coursework of migraine with aura based on a neural network.[14]
For the 20–30%[15][16] of migraine sufferers who experience migraine with aura, this aura comprises focal neurological phenomena that precede or accompany the assault. They appear gradually over 5 to 20 minutes & usually last fewer than 60 minutes. The headache phase of the migraine assault usually begins within 60 minutes of the finish of the aura phase, but it is sometimes delayed up to several hours, & it can be missing entirely (see silent migraine). Signs of migraine aura can be visual, sensory, or motor in nature.[17]
Visual aura is the most common of the neurological events. There is a disturbance of vision consisting usually of unformed flashes of white and/or black or never of multicolored lights (photopsia) or formations of dazzling zigzag lines (scintillating scotoma; often arranged like the battlements of a castle, hence the choice terms "fortification spectra" or "teichopsia"[18]). Some patients complain of blurred or shimmering or cloudy vision, as though they were looking through thick or smoked glass, or, in some cases, tunnel vision & hemianopsia. The somatosensory aura of migraine consists of digitolingual or cheiro-oral paresthesias, a feeling of pins-and-needles experienced in the hand & arm as well as in the nose-mouth area on the same side. Paresthesia migrate up the arm & then extend to involve the face, lips & tongue.
Other signs of the aura phase can include auditory, gustatory or olfactory hallucinations, temporary dysphasia, vertigo, tingling or numbness of the face & extremities, & hypersensitivity to touch.
Oliver Sacks's book Migraine describes "migrainous deliria" because of such intense migraine aura that it is indistinguishable from "free-wheeling states of hallucinosis, illusion, or dreaming."