ABSTRACT
Migraine is common. Almost everyone will either have experienced the condition personally or have friends, family or other acquaintances who are sufferers. Migraine is primarily and most commonly an episodic disorder. In some cases symptoms it can become chronic. Even in those individuals whose phenotype has evolved to a chronic form, symptoms are usually fluctuating. Even in chronic migraine, careful history taking will elicit an initial period of episodic symptoms. Vertigo is mentioned three times in relation to migraine in this classification system. Firstly, it relates to benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood, a condition of vertigo without headache that occurs in younger children and is thought to be a migraine precursor. Secondly, vertigo can be part of the aura of basilar-type migraine. However, in neuro-otology and dizziness clinics, the majority of patients who describe dizziness and vertigo in association with migraine headaches and other migrainous phenomena, do not meet strict criteria for aura.
