Presence of Signs of Central Sensitization in Episodic and Chronic Migraine

Nowadays migraine is conceptualized as a continuum, with at the one hand episodic migraine (EM) and at the other hand chronic migraine (CM) (1). The general aim of the study is to determine where exactly in this continuum central sensitization (CS) appears. Recent studies support the presence of CS in migraine patients (2,3), but controversial evidence exists about where in the continuum exactly CS appears. Some studies determined no differences in sings of CS between EM and CM (4,5), whether other research indicate a clear difference between EM and CM (6-8). However a significant difference in CS parameters could be determined between a patient group (EM or CM) and a healthy control group (3,4,8). In addition, CS appears to be present during the migraine attack (2). In this research, the presence of signs of CS will be determined in between headache phases. The primary outcome measure is identification of CS by PPT, QST, TS, CPM and CSI. Secondary outcome measures are the outcome of the MIDAS, HADS and EUROLIGHT.