Affiliations: [a] Department of Neurology, Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, İnciraltı, İzmir, Turkey | [b] Department of Neurology, Mersin University Faculty of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey | [c] Department of Public Health, Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, İnciraltı, İzmir, Turkey | [d] Department of Neurosciences, Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, İnciraltı, İzmir, Turkey
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Gülden Akdal, Department of Neurology, Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, İnciraltı, İzmir, Turkey. Tel.: +90 232 4124059; Fax: +90 232 2777721; E-mail: [email protected]
Note: [1] This paper was presented in part as a poster at the 63th Annual Meeting at the American Academy of Neurology, 2011 and as a platform presentation in full paper at the Bárány Meeting 2012
Abstract: Background:We assessed frequency of vestibular symptoms in Headache Clinic patients over 10 years. Methods:A descriptive study of 5111 consecutive patients with tension-type headache or migraine, analyzed for dizziness/ vertigo accompanying headache and for a lifetime history of motion-sickness, cyclic vomiting, recurrent abdominal pain or atopy. Migraine patients were re-grouped as those with vestibular symptoms (dizziness/vertigo or motion sickness) and those without and their data then re-analyzed. Results:There were 1880 migraine patients and 3231 tension-type headache patients. Significantly more migraine patients than tension-type headache patients experienced vestibular symptoms (p< 0.0001). The migraine with vestibular symptoms group was significantly younger (p< 0.05) had more aura, more phonophobia with migraine attacks (p< 0.0001). Menstruation and reported sleep problems impacted on headaches. While past history of cyclical vomiting, recurrent abdominal pain or atopy was about twice as common in migraine with aura and it was also more common in migraine with vestibular symptoms than migraine without vestibular symptoms. Conclusions:Vestibular symptoms are common in migraine patients. Migraine with vestibular symptoms might constitute a special group, one more likely to have had cyclic vomiting, recurrent abdominal pain or atopy.
