Hard to Talk During a Migraine Attack? You’re not alone!

If you have trouble talking during a migraine attack – or even before it fully hits you – you’re not alone. Speech problems are a well known, but complex, part of migraine.

Journalist Lindsay Patton-Carson recently wrote about her migrainous struggle with words – and it’s not just speaking them, it’s writing them. She began to connect the dots, she writes, “I did notice that as my migraine frequency increased, my word recollection decreased.”

A recent study set out to look at various specific types of speech disturbances in migraine patients. These were people with “episodic” migraine (not chronic). Using a mobile app, everyone provided three speech samples per day, while tracking their migraine attacks.

This research was not so much studying whether or not people could remember words, but things like pitch of voice, how fast you speak, and how clearly you enunciate (clear pronunciation).

There were, as expected, speech differences in patients with migraine. Not just when they were in the middle of an attack, but all the time (as compared to the control group).

However, the main focus was on changes during the pre-attack phase (prodrome) and the main (normally headache) phase. About half of the patients had significant speech changes during an attack, and about a quarter experienced changes during the pre-attack.

The most significant changes were in how fast and clearly the patient spoke, and “phonatory duration”, an ability to hold a vowel sound (which tends to decrease with age).

Language difficulties (such as slurred speech) are common in migraine – and a common way to diagnose migraine with aura. In an online poll, 90% of our visitors had experienced some kind of language problem related to migraine. It’s well known that there are brain changes during an attack (see Is Your Brain “Slower” During A Migraine Attack?). Interestingly, none of the patients who experienced pre-attack speech issues knew it was happening – it was only found through research of the recordings they made.

This study, though very preliminary, may start to help us understand what types of speech changes are most common and why.

One of the study authors explains

Changes in speech patterns during migraine attacks might be expected given the relatively widespread alterations in brain function and functional connectivity that occur during migraine attacks. The ability to share our thoughts and ideas through spoken communication is a complex and fragile process . . .

Dr. Todd J. Schwedt [source]

Remember, changes in speech and language are not just one thing, and they are complicated. But they’re also common. Yet another reason to fight back against migraine.

Read more here: Migraines can cause altered speech