As reported by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology news portal “Norwegian SciTech News,” researchers analyzed data from more than 43,000 people collected during a large Norwegian population health study called HUNT. The study was published in the medical journal “Neurology.”
The artificial intelligence (AI) model was provided with about 60 different indicators: participants’ age, gender, overall health status, medications taken, back pain, constipation, and other data. Information about headaches was deliberately excluded.
Despite this, the system was able to fairly accurately distinguish people suffering from migraine from those without it.
“Migraine is not just a headache. It is a complex disorder that, as we see, can be related to the whole body,” summarized one of the study’s authors, Linda Alstadhaug.
Migraine may not be a single disease
By examining in more detail data from more than 12,000 people experiencing headaches, scientists found a common profile characteristic of migraine and identified four different patient subgroups.
One group consisted of men, another was dominated by people suffering from severe neck pain. The third group was characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression. The fourth group included people experiencing classic migraine with aura.
Aura refers to temporary neurological symptoms occurring before or during a migraine attack. A person may see flickering, flashes of light, or zigzags, feel numbness, and less commonly, have difficulty speaking.
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According to the researchers, genetic data analysis also showed that the identified groups are not just a statistical coincidence. Biological differences were observed among them.
This allows the assumption that migraine may not be a single uniformly manifested disease, but a spectrum of conditions caused by different biological mechanisms.
Why is this important for treatment?
Currently, migraine is mostly diagnosed based on the symptoms reported by the patient. However, it can manifest differently in different people, and treatment that helps one patient may not be effective for another.
Scientists hope that in the future, more detailed differentiation of migraine subtypes could help select more individualized treatment. For example, for some patients, treatment of neck and other musculoskeletal disorders may be especially important, while for others, control of neurological or psychological symptoms may be key.
However, this is not yet a new migraine diagnostic test. The AI model used in the study has not yet been tested in everyday clinical practice, so it cannot replace a doctor’s consultation or standard diagnostic methods.
The study authors emphasize that the results will need to be confirmed by additional research. However, the discovery may help better understand why migraine affects not only the head and why its symptoms and treatment outcomes vary so greatly.
