DOES MIGRAINE WITH AURA PROTECT AGAINST MEMORY DECLINE?
Migraine patients with aura may show less decline in cognitive function over time compared with people without migraine, according to Amanda Kalaydjian, PhD, and colleagues. The investigators’ results, published in the April 24 Neurology, showed that this association was limited to persons older than 50. Data from Waves III (1993-1996) and IV (2004-2005) of the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study were analyzed. At baseline, 1,448 persons were eligible for the study; 812 of these were evaluated at both Waves III and IV. Scores on immediate and delayed recall tests and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were compared. Two hundred and four patients (14%) received a diagnosis of migraine; 95 of these had migraine with aura. Although migraineurs had lower scores on immediate and delayed memory tests at baseline, their scores declined less over time than did scores provided by nonmigraineurs. Specifically, scores of migraineurs with aura declined by 1.26 and 1.47 words less th
