This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

A new study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden found that 85% of patients with aura-dominant migraine experienced a reduction in monthly aura days by at least half following treatment with the anti-epileptic drug lamotrigine.

The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology, need to be confirmed in a controlled study, but could eventually be significant for a patient group that currently lacks a specific treatment for the aura itself.

Around 1.5 million people in Sweden suffer from migraine. Migraine limits the ability to work and participate in social activities, and leads to significant costs through sick leave, reduced productivity and increased health care needs. Women are three times as likely to be affected as often as men, a difference that is largely due to hormonal factors.

Up to a third of people with migraine experience aura—a temporary neurological symptom that can cause visual disturbances, loss of vision, sensory disturbances, balance problems, and speech and language difficulties, among other symptoms. For some patients, aura is the most debilitating symptom of the disease, but there is currently no established treatment that specifically targets it.

"Around 50,000 people in Sweden suffer from aura-dominant migraine. Aura is thought to be linked to cortical spreading depolarization (CSD), a slowly progressing wave of altered nerve cell activity in the cerebral cortex," says Gürdal Sahin, a researcher at Lund University and a specialist in neurology at the Skåneuro private clinic.

Source link