Light intensifies migraine pain even in the blind


Following a recent study conducted at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, researchers believe they have found the connection between light and migraines. But with over nine million people in the UK alone suffering from migraines, it makes it a debilitating condition for more people than asthma, diabetes and epilepsy sufferers combined. Until now, even though migraine sufferers are aware they feel better once they confine themselves to a dark room; it was unknown as to where pain and light were conversing in the brain to strengthen the migraine.

It appeared that around 85% of the migraine sufferers also suffer from a condition known as photophobia; when the eye is incredibly sensitive to light, thus adding to the intensification of the migraine. The researchers examined a group of 20 blind migraine sufferers, 6 of them being without any form of light perception, no optic nerve or photophobia and 14 who sensed lightness and darkness and had photophobia. Within the group of 6 none of them found their migraine worsened through light exposure; whilst the other 14 described their migraine as intensifying with exposure to light (particularly of grey and blue wavelengths). These results informed researchers that photophobia has something to do with the optic nerve; as in the completely blind 6 patients their optic nerve would be carrying no signals away from the eye to the brain.

Overall, researchers pinpointed the part of the brain where light and pain join as the thalamus, the part of the brain responsible for sensory signals as it processes them and returns them to the appropriate part of the body. Therefore, when someone has a migraine their simple bodily functions like waking and sleeping will become affected, explaining why migraines can be so debilitating to the sufferer. Researchers remain realistic with this latest study, suggesting no immediate cure is going to occur from these results, but it does provide a good foundation on which to build migraine research.

12th January 2010

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