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Ocular Migraine also called Acephalalgic Migraine is a neurological syndrome characterized by abnormal visual sensations, sometimes accompanied by headaches, nausea and vomiting. In some cases, the person may feel heightened sensitivity to sound and light at the early stages of the attack. This type of migraine is generally seen in people with a history of classical migraine.
Like other migraines, ocular migraine spells occur repeatedly and irregularly. That is, patients may experience many spells of ocular migraine within a week and nothing at all for months on end. The spells may last from 15-30 min in general.
The term ocular migraine is to be distinguished with classical migraine or migraine with aura. In classical migraines, the aura can be a visual sensation called visual aura or something non-visual such as smell, dizziness, vertigo, parasthesia, or extremities. Generally aura is experienced by the patient after the prodrome, 10-30 minutes before the onset of the headache. Statistics show that nearly 20% of the migraineurs experiences aura.
Causes of Ocular Migraine
Like in other migraines, the exact cause of ocular migraine is still a topic of debate. The most nearest and convincing explanation is that it is caused due to vascular spasm that affects the ocular blood vessel supplying blood to the vision center in the brain. Changes in the blood flow in the vessels cause the severe throbbing or pounding of headache.
It is believed that ocular migraine is triggered by over stress, oral contraceptives, premenstrual changes, alcohol, and certain victuals such as chocolate, red wine, chicken livers, meats preserved in nitrates, and milk.
Symptoms
As mentioned earlier, the most notable symptom of ocular migraine is the unusual visual sensations that block the normal vision to a large extent during the spell. At the earlier stages of an ocular migraine episode, the patient may experience a visual disturbance in his/her peripheral vision, mostly in the form of a jagged, shimmering, semicircular light, pale pastel in color. Within minutes, it expands and becomes more centric to the area of vision, leading to temporary patchy vision loss. Eventually, in another 15-30 minutes, the zigzag pattern travels outwards of the visual field and soon out of the side vision before disappearing completely, leaving the field of view clear again.
After the episode, the patient may feel fatigued and with/without a mild headache, but the eye sight will be normal as it was before.
Treatment
Even though it is true that ocular migraines can be controlled to an extent by adjusting the diet and reducing stress, it cannot be prevented or cured forever. Still, learning some relaxation techniques to keep calm can help reduce the severity of ocular migraines.
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Having one now after experiencing positional vertigo last week....vertigo is gone after an epiley maneuver but I'm experiencing slight inbalance when moving around since the positional vertigo subside. Been having ocular migraine for the past ten years, originally just aura and now sometimes the headache accompanies the aura. A quick dose of advil at onset usually nips it in the bud before a bad headache starts. Hate it, it's terrifying and I keep thinking I have a brain tumor!
I've had this experience five times in the last two years and went through all kinds of tests- MRI's, etc- without a diagnosis. Finally, I figured out it's migraines. The episodes only happen when I'm shopping. I think it's a combination of the flourescent lights and colors. The first time it happened, I felt disoriented and actually passed out in the grocery store.
I just had this type of migrane. This has never happened to me before! The discription of looking through a cracked window describes it perfectly. I felt like I was only seeing half of everything. It seemed mainly right sided but when I closed each eye, it was on both sides. After about 20 mins it slowly moved out to the right and disappeared. Right now I have a slight headache and just feel out of it. CRAZY EXPERIENCE!!
I had my second one yesterday. The frightening thing about this one was that I couldn't string a sentance together, I was searching for words, simple words that I temporarily forgot. Anyone similar? or am I the only spaz.
Just experiencing one now, exactly as discribed above without the sickness, had one yesterday also but might not have one for months now, is wierd. Was terrified the 1st time it happened thought i was going blind, but it passed after 20 mins.
Me too! Having one right now trying to see this screen. My head never hurts though...the only symptom is the visual which is EXACTLY like described above. So annoying... Wish I knew why they happen...I get them every couple of months.
I experience these all the time I feel like I am hallucinating its horrible.. My auras last for 20 minutes
Nice article, has information I missed in my article!