Familial Hemiplegic Migraine: Does it get worse over time?

Many of us with migraine wonder just how much cumulative damage is taking place with such a high level of pain and other symptoms.  There’s a great deal of discussion over just how migraine impacts us in the long term.

Like the rest of us, those with familial hemiplegic migraine wonder if the impact tends to get worse over time.  A small study of just 6 people (one family) attempted to find out if, in this case, there was a deterioration of things such as cognitive functions and quality of life overall.

Familial Hemiplegic Migraine (FHM) is a very rare type of migraine characterized by weakness or even paralysis usually on just one side of the body.

The study tested the family of 6 and then retested them after 7 years.  The study is generally good news.  Although the symptoms of FHM can be pretty severe, including dysphasia (trouble understanding words) and motor weakness (muscle weakness, usually on one side of the body), and sometimes headache, the cognitive problems generally did not become worse.

On the other hand, as you may have guessed, there was not a lot of improvement either.

The only impairment that got a little worse with some people was something called visuoconstructional function.  This has to do with the ability to understand spatial information and make designs – thing like copying drawings.

It should be good news to patients that disability may not get drastically worse – on the other hand, this study reminds us again that there is a lot of work to be done to better treat FHM.

Read more about familial hemiplegic migraine and its treatment here.

via Long-term Outcome of Cognitive Functions, Emotional Behavior, and Quality of Life in a Family With Familial Hemiplegic Migraine.