early 13% of the adult population of the United States has migraine. The distribution differs between male and females. At all ages, about 5% of men have migraine (Stewart, 1994; Lipton et al, 2002).

Many effective headache medications must be avoided by people who have heart or blood vessel disease in addition to migraine. Identifying and treating these coexisting conditions can be quite important in managing the migraine headaches.

Many of these coexisting illnesses are coincidental. Migraine and epilepsy frequently occur together, and the association between these two conditions is more than coincidental.

Several studies of migraine patients have shown the rate of epilepsy to be much higher, about 6%. In other words, epilepsy is about 12 times more common among people with migraine than it is in the general population.

Researchers have examined possible genetic links between migraine and epilepsy by studying the families of people with epilepsy.

Within a given family, relatives without epilepsy had a one-in-seven chance (15%) of developing migraine, compared to a one-in-four risk (26%) for family members with epilepsy.

People with epilepsy appear to have higher risk of developing migraine at some point in their lives.
Study found that individuals with epilepsy had nearly a one-in-four chance of developing migraine.

The risk of migraine was elevated both before and after the onset of seizures. Shared genes cannot account for theincreased co-occurrence of migraine and epilepsy, nor can environmental factors. Perhaps it can be attributed to an unknown altered brain state.

Both can sometimes be triggered by strong sensations, such as bright light or noise. Given the overlap between the two disorders, some experts have theorized that the underlying mechanisms that produce migraine and seizure attacks may be similar.

Both migraine and epilepsy are characterized by episodes of hyperactivity in the brain and nervous system.

Knowing that a person has both migraine and epilepsy is important to selecting the optimal treatment.