An article appearing in Neurology, explores the effects of a migraine on the brain’s structure on a long term basis. The study suggests that migraine may permanently alter brain structure which is counter to previously held beliefs that migraine has no long term consequence for the brain. For example, see the post titled Are Migraine Related Changes Related to Impaired Cognition? where a study concluded that women with migraine have no long term effects of cognition over time. See also the post Do Migraines Lead to Cognitive Decline?
In the current study, researchers explored 6 population based studies and 13 clinic based studies to determine if people who have migraine had an increased risk of brain lesions, brain volume changes, or other abnormalities as measured from an MRI of the brain. The researchers found that migraine with aura increased the risk of white matter brain lesions by 68% while migraine without aura increased the risk by 34% when compared to those who do not suffer migraines. The researchers found that brain volume changes were more common in people with migraine than in those without migraine. Further the researchers determined that infarct-like abnormalities increased by 44% for those with migraine with aura when compared to those with migraine but without aura.
So the bottom line is that those who suffer from migraine with aura may be at the most risk. The reference for this study is: Asma Bashir, Richard B. Lipton, Sait Ashina and Messoud Ashina, “Migraine and structural changes in the brain A systematic review and meta-analysis,” Neurology, 2013.
The result that women with migraines were more likely to have scattered areas of white mater changes on MRI scans was also found in the CAMERA-1 study as referenced to above in the blog post.