Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche, Center for the Study of Headaches, Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Neurol Sci. 2010 Jun;31 Suppl 1:S29-31. doi: 10.1007/s10072-010-0270-0.
The migraine attack is a reversible brain dysfunction characterized by pain autonomic symptoms and passive coping strategies consistent with sickness behavior. The migraine attack may be interpreted as an example of genetically determined adaptive behavioral response to internal or external stressors that it is orchestrated by a threatened brain. In this view, the migraine attack itself may not be categorized as a disease, i.e., a deviation from or interruption of the normal structure or function of the brain but it may turn into a disease in an allostatic perspective, when the repeated migraine attacks start maladaptive mechanisms (inefficient turning on or shutting off of the mechanisms underlying the migraine attack) that resulted in a chronic pain of the brain. In future, we should recognize and treat early all the conditions able to transform a normal response of the brain into a morbid state, i.e., we have to categorize migraine not only as a type of headache attack but also as a symptom of different syndromes.
偏头痛发作是一种可逆的大脑功能障碍，其特征是疼痛、自主症状和被动应对策略，这些策略与疾病行为一致。偏头痛发作可以被解释为一种遗传决定的适应性行为反应的例子，这种反应是由受到威胁的大脑来协调的，以应对内部或外部的应激源。从这个角度来看，偏头痛发作本身可能不能被归类为疾病，即大脑的正常结构或功能的偏离或中断，但是当反复发作的偏头痛发作开始产生适应不良的机制（偏头痛发作的机制不能有效地开启或关闭）时，它可能会变成一种疾病状态，从而导致大脑的慢性疼痛。在未来，我们应该认识到并尽早治疗所有能够将大脑的正常反应转化为病态的情况，也就是说，我们不仅要将偏头痛归类为头痛发作的一种类型，还要将其归类为不同综合征的一种症状。
