Positron emission tomography of patients experiencing the premonitory phase of migraine, prior to the headache setting in, shows activation in several areas of the brain, indicating that migraine is a brain disorder and not a response to pain stimuli.
The results are significant in terms of understanding the neurobiology of migraine and could have future implications for drug treatment, said study author Peter James Goadsby, MD, PhD, professor, neurology, and director, Headache Program, University of California at San Francisco, and president, International Headache Society.