Patients' resources > Migraine as a familial disease

Migraine as a familial disease

The issue of a familial pattern for migraine should be approached from two different perspectives. Data about patients' familial histories of migraine do provide clues to possible causes of this type of headache, but they may also offer clear explanations to sufferers who are often worried about the possibility of "transmitting" this disorder to their offspring.

In the late 19th century, a few researchers came to the conclusion that migraine was an inherited disease. Later studies have shown that migraine, or at least the more common forms of migraine, are actually "familial", not inherited. That means that the relatives of affected patients are more at risk of developing the disease than are the relatives of unaffected people. However, this will not automatically imply that the children of a woman with migraine will also suffer from it.

The extent of "disease familiarity" or "increased probability" has long been studied and debated. To further investigate this aspect, a number of surveys have been conducted in the general population. Unlike those carried out in highly specialized headache centres, general population studies offer the advantage of a more truthful representation of the actual situation. Moreover, for these studies to be reliable, it is essential that all participants, including patients' relatives, should be questioned through personal interviews.

In particular, a Danish study1 showed that the two main forms of migraine - migraine without aura and migraine with aura - have different familial patterns.

Compared with the general population, the authors reported that first-degree relatives (parents, children, siblings) of patients with migraine without aura had an almost two-fold risk of getting the disease themselves, while that risk was increased almost four-fold in first-degree relatives of patients with migraine with aura. Based on such data, researchers now believe that migraine with aura is the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Among all relatives of migraineurs, mothers are those who most frequently develop migraine. A US study reported that familial migraine is the severest and most debilitating form of migraine.

References

1. Russell MB, Olesen J. Increased familial risk and evidence of genetic factor in migraine. BMJ 1995;311:541-4.

This page last modified: 08/07/2005