Reference
Plain-language definitions of the migraine terms people actually search, from postdrome and prodrome to vestibular migraine, CGRP, and the insurance words that decide whether you get your medication. Grounded in ICHD-3 and the clinical literature, written for the person living it.
A migraine in which aura or other migraine symptoms occur with no headache pain at all. The visual, sensory, or speech disturbance arrives and resolves, but the head pain that people expect to follow never comes.
It is often mistaken for something more alarming on first occurrence, which is part of why migraine that does not center on a headache is so frequently misdiagnosed.
Also searched as: silent migraine, aura without headache, migraine aura without headache.
al-oh-DIN-ee-uh
Pain from a stimulus that is not normally painful, such as brushing your hair, wearing glasses, or a light touch on the face. In migraine it is a sign of central sensitization, where the nervous system has become amplified during an attack.
Allodynia is one reason the after-phase of a migraine can stay miserable even once the throbbing has eased.
Also searched as: skin sensitivity migraine, scalp tenderness.
A set of reversible neurological symptoms that can precede or accompany the headache. The most common is visual: zigzag lines, shimmering, or a blind spot that grows. Aura can also be sensory (tingling or numbness that spreads) or affect speech.
Per ICHD-3, aura symptoms typically develop over at least five minutes and each lasts up to sixty minutes. Roughly a quarter to a third of people with migraine experience aura.
Also searched as: migraine aura, visual migraine, migraine with aura.
A lay term for the cognitive symptoms of migraine: trouble concentrating, slowed thinking, and word-finding difficulty. It is prominent in both the prodrome before an attack and the postdrome after it.
Because it is hard to quantify, brain fog is often the symptom that goes unrecorded, even when it is the one that most affects work and daily function.
Also searched as: migraine brain fog, cognitive symptoms migraine, difficulty concentrating migraine.
see-gee-ar-pee
Calcitonin gene-related peptide, a protein involved in transmitting migraine pain and in the dilation of blood vessels during an attack. It became the target of a generation of migraine-specific drugs.
CGRP monoclonal antibodies (such as erenumab, fremanezumab, galcanezumab, and eptinezumab) and oral gepants both act on this pathway. These are often the treatments behind an insurance prior-authorization fight.
Also searched as: calcitonin gene-related peptide, CGRP migraine treatment.
Defined in ICHD-3 as headache on 15 or more days per month for more than three months, with at least eight of those days having migraine features. It is distinct from episodic migraine, which falls below that threshold.
The continuous nature of chronic migraine is exactly what a discrete-attack tracker struggles to represent, because one attack often runs into the next.
Also searched as: chronic migraine definition, 15 headache days a month, chronic vs episodic migraine.
A slow wave of altered electrical activity that moves across the surface of the brain, followed by a period of suppressed activity. It is the leading physiological explanation for migraine aura.
The timing of this wave matches the way visual aura grows and moves across the field of vision over several minutes.
Also searched as: CSD, what causes migraine aura.
Migraine with headache on fewer than 15 days per month. Most people with migraine are episodic. Attacks tend to have a clearer beginning and end, which is why a discrete-attack tracker fits this pattern reasonably well.
Episodic migraine can progress to chronic migraine over time, which is one reason tracking frequency matters.
Also searched as: episodic vs chronic migraine.
JEP-ant
A class of oral medications that block the CGRP receptor. Some gepants are used to stop an attack in progress, some are taken to prevent attacks, and at least one is used both ways.
Examples include rimegepant (Nurtec ODT), atogepant (Qulipta), and ubrogepant (Ubrelvy). Like the CGRP antibodies, they are frequently subject to insurance prior authorization.
Also searched as: oral CGRP, rimegepant, atogepant, ubrogepant, Nurtec, Qulipta, Ubrelvy.
Two validated questionnaires that quantify how much migraine disrupts your life. HIT-6 (the Headache Impact Test) is a six-item score. MIDAS (the Migraine Disability Assessment) counts days of life lost to migraine over three months.
These scores are often what a neurologist, an insurer, or a disability reviewer wants to see, because they translate symptoms into a number.
Also searched as: migraine disability score, HIT-6 test, MIDAS questionnaire.
The International Classification of Headache Disorders, third edition, published by the International Headache Society. It is the standard reference clinicians use to diagnose migraine and other headache disorders.
ICHD-3 is where the formal definitions of migraine, aura, chronic migraine, and the postdrome phase come from.
Also searched as: International Classification of Headache Disorders, migraine diagnostic criteria.
IK-tul
The headache phase of a migraine attack: the part most people think of as "the migraine." It follows the prodrome and any aura, and precedes the postdrome.
Naming it as one phase of four is useful, because the disability of a migraine is not confined to this phase.
Also searched as: headache phase, attack phase migraine.
A headache caused or worsened by frequent use of acute migraine or pain medication, sometimes called rebound headache. It is one of the most common reasons episodic migraine becomes chronic.
The rough thresholds are about ten or more days per month of triptans, ergots, or combination analgesics, or about fifteen or more days per month of simple analgesics, sustained over three months.
Also searched as: MOH, rebound headache, rebound migraine.
The everyday name for the postdrome: the drained, foggy, washed-out feeling in the 24 to 72 hours after the headache itself has eased. The clinical term is postdrome.
It is real, it is documented, and for many people it is the most disabling part of the whole cycle.
Also searched as: migraine hangover, day after a migraine, feeling bad after migraine.
foh-noh-FOH-bee-uh
Heightened sensitivity to sound during a migraine, where ordinary noise becomes painful or intolerable. Along with photophobia, it is one of the defining associated symptoms of migraine in ICHD-3.
Also searched as: sound sensitivity migraine, noise sensitivity.
foh-toh-FOH-bee-uh
Heightened sensitivity to light during a migraine, often severe enough to force a person into a dark room. It frequently lingers into the postdrome, after the headache has faded.
Notably, general health apps that log a "headache" symptom usually have no field for photophobia at all, so it goes unrecorded.
Also searched as: light sensitivity migraine, sensitivity to light.
POST-drohm
The fourth and final phase of a migraine, following the prodrome, aura, and headache. Common symptoms include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, weakness, dizziness, neck stiffness, and lingering sensitivity to light and sound.
In Bose and Goadsby's 2016 study, 81 percent of patients experienced postdrome, with a mean duration of about 25 hours. For some people the disability here exceeds that of the headache itself.
Also searched as: postdrome phase, migraine postdrome, fourth phase of migraine.
Migraine drugs fall into two broad jobs. Preventive (or prophylactic) medications are taken regularly to reduce how often attacks happen. Acute (or abortive) medications are taken during an attack to stop it.
Many treatment plans use both. Insurance step-therapy rules usually concern the preventive category.
Also searched as: preventive vs abortive migraine, prophylactic migraine medication.
A requirement that your insurer approve a medication before it will cover it. For newer migraine treatments such as CGRP drugs, prior authorization is common, and a denial can often be appealed.
Also searched as: migraine prior auth, insurance approval migraine medication.
PROH-drohm
The premonitory phase, hours to a day or two before the headache. Signs can include yawning, food cravings, mood changes, neck stiffness, increased thirst, and trouble concentrating.
Recognizing your own prodrome can create a window to act early, which is part of why tracking it matters.
Also searched as: premonitory phase, migraine warning signs, before a migraine.
STAY-tus my-gruh-NOH-sus
A debilitating migraine attack that lasts longer than 72 hours. It is a recognized complication of migraine and often requires specific medical treatment to break.
For someone living through it, the idea of logging a single attack with a clean start and end time becomes meaningless.
Also searched as: intractable migraine, migraine lasting days.
An insurance policy that requires you to try, and fail, one or more preferred or cheaper medications before it will cover the one your clinician actually prescribed. It is sometimes called "fail first."
Step therapy is a frequent reason CGRP migraine treatments are denied on first request, and documenting your prior failures is how the appeal is won.
Also searched as: step therapy migraine, fail first insurance, try cheaper drugs first.
TRIP-tan
A class of acute migraine medications, including sumatriptan and rizatriptan, that act on serotonin receptors to stop an attack in progress. They are abortive, not preventive.
Frequent triptan use is one of the patterns linked to medication-overuse headache, so tracking how often you reach for them is clinically useful.
Also searched as: sumatriptan, rizatriptan, acute migraine medication.
A form of migraine in which the dominant symptoms are vestibular: vertigo, dizziness, and a sense of imbalance, often with little or no headache. It is one of the most common causes of recurrent vertigo.
Because it frequently arrives without head pain, it is both commonly misdiagnosed and poorly served by trackers that organize everything around a headache.
Also searched as: vestibular migraine, migraine dizziness, migraine vertigo, migraine without headache.
The words are clinical. The experience isn't.
Postdrome is a migraine tracker built around the parts of these definitions that other apps skip: the postdrome phase, headache-free vestibular attacks, and the continuous pattern of chronic migraine. Free pattern insights, a free neurology-ready PDF, one lifetime price.
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