Silent or Acephalgic Migraine

Different types of migraine attacks are there and all of them cause health problems for the sufferer. Uniqueness in acephalgic migraine is that it is a type of migraine without headache. It is known by different names like –

  • Amigrainous migraine
  • Isolated visual migraine
  • Optical migraine

 Neurological Syndrome

Basically, acephalgic migraine is a neurological syndrome and is one of the most uncommon variants of migraine. In course of the attack, the sufferer may experience various things like nausea, hemiparesis, aura, photophobia, but the common feature is that the sufferer does not experience any headache.

Acephalgic Migraine Features

Main features of the acephalgic migraine are;

  • It can affect individuals in any age group;
  • Ordinarily people experience migraine with headache and only some of the individuals experience acephalgic migraine;
  • Females suffer commonly with the syndrome in comparison to the males; and the occurrence is more during the perimenopause; and
  • Childs suffering from acephalgic migraine can develop the traditional migraine when they grow up.

Acephalgic Migraine Symptoms

Common symptoms of acephalgic migraine are –

  • Scintillating scotoma;
  • Monocular blindness; and
  • The occurrence is usually for small time span that could be as low as 15 seconds though at times they can extend up to two days.

Very often this type of migraine resembles the transient ischemic attacks and even strokes. But it is not as dangerous as either of them though appropriate diagnosis becomes difficult at times. Sometimes doctors also make wrong diagnosis like considering the attack as epilepsy with visual seizures. However, there are also occasion where other severe attacks are mistaken as acephalgic migraine attack and could cause problem in correct treatment.

Treating Acephalgic Migraine

Whether it is prevention or treatment of acephalgic migraine, there is not much difference from the treatment of the traditional migraine. As the affects go down, the requirement of treatment would be fewer as well.

Different Phases of Migraine

There are various phases of migraine attacks;

  • Prodrome
  • Headache
  • Aura
  • Postdrome

Basically, any migraine not accompanied by headache can be termed as acephalgic migraine. It is also know by various names like migraine aura without headache, migraine equivalent, eye migraine, sans-migraine, ocular migraine, and visual migraine. Suspecting the migraine is very difficult since there is no accompanying headache a common factor in traditional migraine.

Some General Facts

Clinical studies have revealed that around 25% of migraine come without a headache and is therefore silent or acephalgic migraine. But the absence of the headache results often in misdiagnosis and it becomes difficult suspecting migraine.

What Causes It

Some of the main causes of acephaltic migraine can be;

  • In the past it was considered to be the blood flow in the brains that causes this type of migraine but later it was found that there is no direct relationship between the two;
  • Most pertinent reasons are high noise, use of alcohol, bright lights, and lack of adequate sleep; too much caffeine, and skipped meals;
  • Other reasons are physical and emotional stress; weather variations; hormone changes in women; foods that contain amino acids; and nuts and chocolates.

Only good thing is that it may go as it came without any treatment.