Silent Migraines also called as Acephalgic Migraine, Migraine aura without Headache, Amigrainous Migraine, Isolated Visual Migraine, Optical Migraine, Migraine Equivalents and Ocular Migraine is a neurological syndrome. It is a relatively rare migraine variant in which a patient experience nausea, aura, photophobia, phonophobia and other migraine symptoms but experience without the symptom of headache pain.
Silent migraines may occur at any age and to those also who never experienced migraines before, very often silent migraines occur to people who agonized from Migraines with aura when they were younger. Acephalgic migraines or silent migraines typically do not persist more than few hours and may last for as petite as 15 seconds. On exceptional occasions may continue for up to two days. Commonly, silent migraines are more than twice likely to occur in females than males.
Silent Migraine Triggers
- Lack of sleep
- Skipped meals
- Stress
- Alcohol
- Weather conditions
- Foods such as aged cheese, nuts, chocolate
- Hormonal changes in women
- Flickering bright lights and loud noise
Types of Silent Migraine
According to International Headache Society Silent migraines are categorized as follows:
- Childhood Periodic Migraines
Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Migraine
Benign Paroxysmal Vertigo of Childhood
Symptoms of Silent Migraines
People having silent migraines may have all symptoms of a migraine without headache pain, included are
- Speech disturbance
- Migraine aura
- Vision changes
- Blurred or loss of vision
- Change in mood
- Tingling and numbness
- Feeling of pins and needles pain
- Vertigo
- Photophobia
- Phonophobia
- Nausea and vomiting
- Weakness
- Confusion
- Abdominal pain
- Loss of hearing
Even without the pain of a migraine, the other symptoms can be temporarily disturbing and can upset the normal day. It is very important to see a medical professional immediately to diagnose the cause of the symptoms.
Diagnosis of Silent Migraine
In the below video, you can see the conversation between the doctors regarding the diagnosis of Silent migraines, and how easily people misunderstand the symptoms of Silent migraines and associate it with some other ailment.
What Causes Silent Migraine
Researchers are looking at migraine aura and pain as two distinct approaches. In the past, specialists thought that migraines cause due to problem with blood flow in the brain which is a vascular event, but they now they consider aura as a neurovascular event which means that the involvement of the nerve cells in a way they fire in the brain and in return how the nerve cell activity transmits the blood flow to the brain. This array of reduced brain activity is called cortical spreading depression.
Migraine aura without a headache is a result of an attack seemingly starts in the brainstem and involves activation of fifth cranial nerve which contains both sensory and motor fibers and spreads across the cortex (top layer) of the brain. The array of cortical spreading depression reflects the visual, sensation, and hearing symptoms which are common to a migraine. Migraine pain is thought to be caused by contraction followed by dilation of blood vessels in the brain and thought that swelling activates pain in the nervous system.
Treatment for Silent Migraines
The Prevention and treatment of silent migraines are same as for a migraine. Medical professional or a doctor will recommend applicable treatment based on the type of migraine symptoms experienced by a patient. But the symptoms are usually less severe than any a migraine. So, the treatment is less likely required.
Silent Migraines can also be prevented by maintaining some points as below:
- Keeping a diary of symptoms-Tracking the symptoms of start and end, changes in sleep and stress and any other triggers apart from food triggers
- Consult and talk to a doctor– Talk to the doctor about the symptom diary and medical history and have a complete examination by a neurologist
- Assess the pros and cons of medications- Being prepared to try all the different type of medicines to find out which is suitable medication.
- Taking good self-care – By eating well and taking plenty of rest, learning stress management techniques and doing exercise regularly.
Sources: Dailymail , HealthLine