Optical Migraines
About optical migraines:
Optical migraines are a specifically defined type of migraine condition, whereby the migraine sufferer experiences noted symptoms of the condition which are different to other, more common types of migraine.
Optical migraines may also be called ocular migraines, acephalgic migraines, amigrainous migraine or migraine aura without headache.
Typically optical migraines are a condition where the sufferer experiences visual (ie. optical) disturbances and associated optical symptoms, as the name suggests. Normally an optical migraine sufferer does not experience a migraine 'headache', but may experience some dull pain during or after attacks.
When a patient suffers an optical migraine attack, many different symptoms have been reported. These symptoms include:
- Visual impairment in one or both eyes
- Visual 'hallucination' effects such as spinning colors and/or flashing lights
- Blurred vision
- Appearance of shapes and/or objects in the visual field
- Partial obstruction of vision
While these are some typical symptoms of optical migraine patients, optical migraine is a rare and somewhat unique condition, meaning that a sufferer may experience variable symptoms which can differ from "the norm".
Only an approximated 1% of all migraine sufferers suffer from optical migraine.
Optical migraines typically do not have an associated headache but sometimes they can. If they do have a headache that follows it is usually moderate to severe in intensity and may be centred around one eye. The throbbing pain will last between a few hours and a few days.
Normally an ocular migraine which has an associated headache is called migraine with aura or also 'classic migraine'. This is sometimes mistakenly thought to be an ocular migraine because of the visual symptoms involved, however a migraine with aura is simply a type of migraine which is preceded by aura symptoms.
A patient may, quite normally, experience a number of different types of migraine attacks over their lifetime and these are commonly linked to one another.
Find out more:
What Are Painless Migraine Episodes?
How Do I Know If I Have an Ocular Migraine ?
