4.5: Benign exertional headache or effort migraine

Exercise, particularly in intense bursts or after a prolonged low-level effort in an unconditioned individual, may produce headache which is quite similar to migraine (Massey 1982). Many examples of "acute effort" migraine were encountered in highly trained participants during the Olympic Games in Mexico City (Raskin, 1988). Exertional migraine may occur during physical fitness training. I have seen one patient who could exactly titrate the number of bench presses he could do before he developed an exertional headache. Benign exertional headache can sometimes be prevented by administration of ergotamine or methysergide before the intended exercise. The temporal profile of benign exertional migraine is shown in Figure 2. To most, this is a type of migraine is precipitated by exercise.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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