Late-life Migraine Accompaniments in Middle Age and the Elderly

R. Allan Purdy MD, FRCPC, Professor of Medicine (Neurology), Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS.

Of all the neurological disorders, migraine is one of the most common and fascinating. In importance, the modern neurobiology of migraine places it among other major neurological conditions of a paroxysmal nature. Migraine occurs at all ages and is not uncommon in middle- and late-life. It can present with aura and no or little headache, and with or without a prior history of migraine in earlier life. Physicians seeing older patients with transient neurological symptoms and headache need to understand the role of migraine in the diagnosis and ensure no other sinister etiology exists or coexists.
Key words: migraine, aura, migraine accompaniment, acephalgic migraine, headache.