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The puzzle of migraine chronification

Scientists are trying to work out why attacks become more and more frequent in some people — and how to reverse the process.
  1. Neil Savage

    1. Neil Savage is a freelance writer in Lowell, Massachusetts.

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Illustration of a person pinching their nose as if they have a headache, with a month-view clandar superimposed

Credit: Taj Francis

Len Barbieri started getting migraine headaches when he was 9 years old, although it was many years before they were labelled as such. The condition ran in his family; both his father and his aunt experienced migraines. As a teenager, Barbieri remembers driving his father to the hospital, where only a shot of morphine could provide relief.

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Nature 586, S12-S14 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02865-6

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Headache, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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