All about Migraine: Causes, Symptoms, Types, Migraine in pregnancy, Migraine ICD 10

All about Migraine: Causes, Symptoms, Types, Migraine in pregnancy, Migraine ICD 10, treatment of migraine
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What is migraine:

Migraine is one of the neurological conditions that have a headache as the main symptom with other multiple symptoms. It is also known as a ‘Sick headache’ because it is mostly accompanied by nausea and vomiting and the headache lasts for 4 hours to 2-3 days also.
 

Causes of Migraine:

There is no definite research that suggests the exact cause of it. There are various factors and conditions that can cause a migraine attack.
 
Researchers also found that it runs in families mean it can be inherited. The child has a 50% chance of getting migraines if one parent has a history of it and if both parents have migraine risk increases to 75%.
 

What triggers the migraine?

 
There are many trigger factors such as…
 
 
  • External factors: like severe heat, change in weather, bright light, loud sounds, unusual strong smells, traveling, etc.
 
  • Physical and mental factors: like stress, feeling of tired, emotional reason, excessive physical and mental work, change in sleeping pattern, dehydration, etc.
 
  • Food: skipping meals or fasting, food additives like nitrates, artificial sugar like aspartame, monosodium glutamate which is mostly used in fast foods, alcohol, fermented foods like bread and backed items, aged cheese, etc.
 
 
  • Medicines: like caffeine. High usage or withdrawing of caffeine can cause migraine. For acute migraine headache caffeine as medicine also used by some doctors. Other medicine like nitroglycerin can also trigger be a factor.
 
 
  • Hormonal changes in women such as estrogen and progesterone changes during menstruation, menopause, or pregnancy.
 
 
  • Smoking is also one of the trigger factors.
 

Symptoms of Migraine:

 
Symptoms vary from person to person and types of migraine. Symptoms appear like…
 
 
  • Aura: we will discuss aura in types of migraine section.
 
 
  • Headache: is the main symptom of migraine. It may be dull or severe. Usually, it starts as a dull headache, later on, there is a pulsating or throbbing headache. In most cases, the headache may get worse by movement or exercise, loud noise, lights, sun, etc. Headache may start at one part or side of the head and shift to another part of the head, and sometimes covers the whole head.
 
 
  • Nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite
 
 
  • Sensitivity to loud noise, smell or light
 
 
  • Feeling of weakness or fatigue
 
 
  • Dizziness, blurred vision in some cases
 
 
  • In rare cases fever, diarrhea also occurs
 

Types of migraine:

 
There are mainly two types, migraine with Aura or without Aura.
 

Migraine with Aura:

 
Aura is symptoms or sensations that are felt by affected persons before a few minutes or hours of the migraine attack, seizure, or anyone other neurological events. Migraine with aura is called classical migraine.
 
Following are the characteristic of the Aura:
 
 
  • Visual disturbances such as black spots, brilliant zigzag lines or threads before the eyes, blurred vision, temporary vision loss, etc.
 
 
  • Numbness, tingling, dizziness, or vertigo, such type of sensory problems can also be felt by the affected person.
 
 
  • Extreme weakness can also be seen
 
 
  • Aura starts a few minutes or hours before a headache attack. Afterword, headache, and other symptoms start. Sometimes the headache can also appear along with aura.
 

Migraine without Aura:

 
This is called common migraine. Most of the people don’t have an aura before a migraine headache.
 

Other types of migraine:

 
There are also some other and rare types such as…
 

Hemiplegic migraine:

When one has weakness on one side of the body with dizziness, numbness. These symptoms look like paralysis or hemiplegia. You should consult a doctor for emergency help if you have these types of symptoms.
 

Intractable migraine:

This is also known as status migrainosus where migraine last more than 72 hours with the intense symptoms of headache, nausea, and sometimes vomiting. Many times status migrainosus can also be seen in medicine withdrawal with which person is habitual.
 

Chronic migraine:

A person who has a headache on 15 or more days per month for more than 3 months is defined as chronic migraine.
 
There are some risk factors for chronic migraines such as excessive stress, anxiety, depression, head or neck injury, obesity, persistent or frequent nausea, overuse of caffeine and other medication, etc.
 

Optic migraine:

In this case, the person has pain around eyeballs with other symptoms. This is also known as eye migraine, ocular or monocular, or ophthalmic or retinal migraine.
 

Migraine with brainstem aura:

Confusion, giddiness, loss of balance, etc. are the main symptoms.
 

Migraine in pregnancy:

 
More than 25% of women experience migraine during their lifetime. Hormonal changes can be the trigger as it is common during menstruation, menopause, and pregnancy.
 
Pregnancy has a significant impact on migraine. Some women experience migraine for the first time and some have an increase in their symptoms during pregnancy.
 
50 to 80% of pregnant women with migraine history have a reduction in attacks during pregnancy. The pregnant women who have an increase in the intensity of migraine attacks should take it carefully and seriously especially if she has medical conditions such as high blood pressure. These pregnant women should identify and avoid the triggers of migraine. No medication of migraine during pregnancy should be taken without consultation with experienced doctors.
 

Treatment of migraine:

 
There is no definite cure for migraine but symptoms can be treated and some preventive medicines are helpful in recurrence or prevent migraines. The line of treatment can be…
 

Symptomatic medicine:

Pain relief medication for headache including NSAIDs like paracetamol, naproxen, etc. and other symptomatic medicine for nausea vomiting, etc. should be taken.
 

Preventive:

Some preventive medicines are also helpful like triptans and antidepressant medication with some associated conditions in person.
 

Selfcare:

This includes identifying the trigger factors and be away from that. Also includes stress management, diet management, improving sleep pattern, etc.
 

Therapy:

This includes mental health improvement therapy, muscle relaxation, and acupressure or acupuncture.
 
Please note: All the treatment must be taken under the care of the professional doctors and health care experts in their particular field.
 

Migraine ICD 10:

 
ICD is the International classification of diseases, which is used for clinical care and research to define the disease and studying disease patterns, as well as manage healthcare, monitor outcomes and allocate resources. So ICD 10 is its 10th revision of the international statistical classification of disease.
 
There is some code for a particular disease like in ICD 10 code for migraine is G43.
G43.0 for migraine without aura
G43.1 for migraine with aura
G43.2 for status migrainosus,
G43.3 for Complicated migraine, etc.
 
For more details of the code allocated for a particular disease, you can read more on the WHO site.
 
Sources:

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This is all about the migraine. If you have any questions or query please ask in the comment box and please share the article with friends.

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