The Comorbidity of Migraine and Epilepsy in Children and Adolescents

Migraine and epilepsy share a number of clinical attributes, including pathophysiology and clinical expression. Both are paroxysmal in nature and thus constitute episodic disorders, yet either may be chronic and recurrent. Epileptic seizures and migraine headaches may be mistaken one for the other and may even overlap. In particular, occipital lobe seizures may be misdiagnosed as migraine auras. In this article we review the relationship between migraine and epilepsy, including the known genetic contributions to both conditions, prodromal, ictal and postictal headache and shared pathophysiology and treatment options between migraine and epilepsy.
Source: Seminars in Pediatric Neurology - Category: Neurology Authors: Source Type: research