Migraine with Motor Symptoms: A Separate Disorder?

Many patients in this study had unilateral give-way weakness, but the clinical significance of this observation remains unclear.

These authors identified 24 patients with migraine (9 episodic and 15 chronic) with self-reported unilateral motor symptoms (MUMS) and compared them with 48 migraine patients without motor weakness (controls) in a retrospective study at a tertiary headache center.

Both groups underwent structured clinical interviews, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; psychiatric diagnoses were based on DSM-IV. Patients with abnormal brain MRIs and familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) were excluded. In addition to assessing headache severity and migraine disability, researchers tested allodynia in the forehead, cheek, neck, and arms, and assessed give-way weakness (sudden loss of resistance during muscle-strengt…

Reviewing Author

Ninan T. Mathew, MD, FRCP(C)