HOLISTIC SPECULATIONS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF MIGRAINE

For many years the onset of migraine has been correlated with diet and with psychological factors, although what it is that these separate factors have in common has been uncertain. In this article, Arthur Crisp speculates that the connection may lie in a disturbance of neurotransmitter amine systems involved in the electrophysically detectable rest-activity cycle particularly evident in the transition between rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep: on the one hand, dietary variations may upset neurotransmitter amine metabolism, and, on the other, psychological factors may introduce an 'overload' on the rest-activity cycle which cannot fully perform its assimilatory role. © 1979.