Migraine is the first book written by Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE , is a British neurologist and psychologist residing in New York City. He is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also holds the position of Columbia Artist...

, a well-known neurologist

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

 and author with a practice in New York City. The book was written in 1967, mostly over a nine-day period, and first published in 1970. A revised and updated version was published in 1990.

Summary

As with Sacks' other writings, the book is a comprehensive review of the subject aimed at the lay population

Layman

A layperson or layman is a person who is not an expert in a given field of knowledge. The term originally meant a member of the laity, i.e. a non-clergymen, but over the centuries shifted in definition....

 and uses numerous case histories

Case study

A case study is an intensive analysis of an individual unit stressing developmental factors in relation to context. The case study is common in social sciences and life sciences. Case studies may be descriptive or explanatory. The latter type is used to explore causation in order to find...

. Sacks describes the nature of and treatments for migraine

Migraine

Migraine is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by moderate to severe headaches, and nausea...

 in general and several various subtypes, particularly examining the visual aura

Aura (symptom)

An aura is a perceptual disturbance experienced by some migraine sufferers before a migraine headache, and the telltale sensation experienced by some people with epilepsy before a seizure. It often manifests as the perception of a strange light, an unpleasant smell or confusing thoughts or...

 feature that is common to many sufferers, along with the premonitorys. The particular focus of the book, however, is on the neuropsychological aspects of migraine.

Contents

The book is divided into five sections:

1. The Experience of Migraine
2. The Occurrence of Migraine
3. The Basis of Migraine
4. Therapeutic Approaches to Migraine
5. Migraine as a Universal

See also

• International Classification of Headache Disorders
  International Classification of Headache Disorders
  The International Classification of Headache Disorders is a detailed hierarchical classification of all headache-related disorders published by the International Headache Society...
  
  
• Management of chronic headaches