How was it first discovered that genetics played a role in migraine?
Description
The idea that genetics could play a role in migraine first evolved from patients simply telling their doctors that other family members had migraine. There was also a Norwegian study on pain in twins that revealed a potential genetic component of migraine.
Transcript
“Most patients were telling us, you know, this runs in the family. Because sometimes you ask them, ‘Why didn't you come before?’ ‘Oh, because I was doing what my mother told me to do or what my grandmother was doing.’
“And they don't feel sometimes at the beginning, when it's really sometimes episodic, as if it were a problem. They actually lived with it because that's what happens in their family. So patients are micro-experts. And we were listening, and they were telling us that migraine runs in their families. Then there were some initial studies, twin studies, done in the Scandinavian countries. There is a famous Norwegian study and they started seeing that twins are so [similar], they were more migrainous than others … because there's always a fight with genetics, whether it's genes or the environment. Is it your lifestyle? You know, you're stressed and whatever problems you might have, or is it the genes? And it's probably both, but genes are so important. I mean, you are wired differently from the beginning so that's how we started knowing that migraine could be genetic.”
Discussion
The idea that genetics could potentially play a role in migraine first began with patients simply telling their doctors that other members of their family had migraine disease, as well. In addition, a study on pain in twins was conducted in Scandinavia and it revealed that there could be a potential genetic component in migraine and other headache disorders.
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Patricia Pozo-Rosich, MD, PhD
Head of the Neurology Department
Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Institute of Research
Patricia Pozo-Rosich, MD, PhD, is a neurologist and one of Europe’s leading migraine experts. She leads the Neurology Department at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona and directs the Migraine Adaptive Brain Center, a national reference center focused on advancing migraine research and care. She also heads the Headache Research Laboratory at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) and serves as president-elect of the International Headache Society.
Dr. Pozo-Rosich is deeply committed to helping people understand migraine as a complex neurological disorder and improving access to effective treatment. She founded the Spanish-language education site MiDolordeCabeza.org and has authored more than 250 scientific publications. Her work has received multiple national awards, and she serves as associate editor for leading headache journals. She has been principal investigator in more than 100 clinical trials and is an active member of international headache genetics consortiums.
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