Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about migraines. And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com

slash migraines or in the neurology section of the second edition of the zero to finals medicine book.

And you can find flashcards and questions to train your knowledge on this content

and help you remember the information for longer at members.0 tofinals.com.

So let's get straight into it.

Migraine is a complex neurological condition causing episodes or attacks of headache and associated

symptoms.

Migraine is very common.

It tends to affect women more often than men and it's most common in teenagers and young adults.

Migraine can be categorised into four main types.

Migraine without aura, migraine with aura, silent migraine, which is a migraine with

aura but without a headache, and hemiplegic migraine.

The pathophysiology of migraine has been studied for decades. Various mechanisms and theories have

been developed. It's likely a combination of structural, functional, chemical, vascular and inflammatory factors.

Let's talk about the typical symptoms.

There are five stages of a typical migraine, the premonitory or prodromal stage,

and this can be present for several days before the onset of the headache,

the aura stage, which can last up to 60 minutes,

the headache stage which lasts 4 to 72 hours,

the resolution stage, which is where the headache either fades away

or is relieved abruptly by vomiting or sleeping,

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