Patients with migraines typically experience excruciating and debilitating headaches along with other symptoms, such as nausea and sensitivity to light. Some migraine sufferers experience an aura, which is a sensation that a migraine is about to occur. The characteristics of an aura vary from one patient to the next but often involve visual disturbances. Some migraines cause symptoms different from typical migraine profile (intense throbbing pain lasting for many hours, nausea, depression and other symptoms) and are thus classified as atypical migraines.
Mixed Tension Migraine
One form of atypical migraine is a mixed tension migraine, which has aspects of both a tension headache and a migraine. Mixed tension migraines typically feature a throbbing headache on one or both sides of the head which can range from severe to mild. It makes the sufferer feel like there is a band pressing on her head, and can last from four to 72 hours. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, sluggishness and irritability. Mixed tension migraines can also cause depression, sensitivity to sounds and/or light, neck pain and numbness, weakness or tingling in the body.
"Silent" Migraines
Some people who suffer from migraines do not experience any of the headache aspects of the migraine. These people suffer from a type of atypical migraine called a silent migraine (also known as an abdominal or acephalgic migraine). Patients with silent migraines typically have other family members who suffer from migraines or also have typical migraines from time to time. Silent migraines can cause nausea and vomiting, depression, irritiability, and light and sound sensitivity. Some patients also experience an aura, which is a series of visual disturbances (such as zig-zagging lights) that typically mark an impending migraine.
Retinal Migraine
Retinal migraines are a relatively rare type of atypical migraines. They cause patients to have a sudden loss of vision or blindness, typically in only one eye. The vision loss is not permanent, but the retinal migraines may be relatively frequent. The visual symptoms of a retinal migraine can occur before or after a throbbing headache, though some patients experience only the vision loss.
