Nasim Maleki, PhD
Department of Anesthesia,
Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Migraine is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be one of the top 20 causes of
disability worldwide, impairing the occupational,
academic, social, leisure, and family life of migraine
patients. Migraine is a common neurological disorder,
with the brain at the center of it. Multiple studies
have already confirmed that there are differences
between ‘migraine brain’ and healthy brain both in
structure as well as function. For example, a migraine brain is more excitable and active even during
migraine-free periods between the attacks with less
ability to regulate and adjust itself compared to a
healthy brain.
One of the most interesting characteristics of the
migraine disease is, similar to a number of other
chronic pain disorders, that it is about 2 to 3 times
more prevalent in women than in men. We still
poorly understand the preponderance in women,
and do not understand the mechanisms underlying
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this difference. Specifically, given the difference in
the disease prevalence, are there variations between the brains of women and men who suffer fr