MS headaches can feel like intense, throbbing migraines (often one-sided with nausea/light sensitivity), dull pressure (tension-type), or severe, one-sided cluster pain, but they can also be unique pressure/foggy sensations, sometimes described as a brick wall or feeling "in the clouds," often linked to muscle tension or even spinal fluid leaks in MS, requiring different treatments for different types.
Migraines are the most commonly reported headache type in MS patients. These are often throbbing, pulsating headaches, typically on one side of the head, and can be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light (photophobia) and sound (phonophobia).
Headache (pain) phase: The pain is typically one-sided, pulsating and worsens with movement. It may last from 4 to 72 hours and is often accompanied by nausea or vomiting, and sensitivity to light (photophobia) or sound (phonophobia).
Duration of migraine aura is typically much shorter (5 minutes to 60 minutes) than the duration of an MS episode (24 hours), and this difference is a key factor in distinguishing between the two conditions when patients present with visual symptoms.
This kind of MS‐typical headache seems to be very similar to migraine, because we often found recurrent pain of pulsating‐throbbing character, lasting between 4 and 72 hr, that does not fulfill the criteria of migraine.
There are lots of symptoms that MS can cause, but not everyone will experience all of them.
On an imaging test (an MRI), your provider can find evidence of myelin damage. They may refer to it as a scar, lesion or plaque. Messages don't pass between nerve cells easily where there is myelin damage, which leads to the development of MS symptoms.
15 Early Signs of Multiple Sclerosis
There's no clear evidence that MS directly causes headaches. MS activity in the brain and nervous system might have an effect, directly or indirectly. But no definite cause has been found. Headaches can be a side effect of medication, including disease modifying therapies (DMTs) for MS.
These include fibromyalgia and vitamin B12 deficiency, muscular dystrophy (MD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), migraine, hypo-thyroidism, hypertension, Beçhets, Arnold-Chiari deformity, and mitochondrial disorders, although your neurologist can usually rule them out quite easily.
The first-line treatment for migraines is usually painkillers like ibuprofen or aspirin. If these don't work, your doctor might create a different treatment plan with stronger medication like triptans, or suggest lifestyle changes like avoiding triggers, drinking lots of water, and getting enough sleep.
True (primary) chronic daily headaches don't have an identifiable underlying cause. Conditions that might cause nonprimary chronic daily headaches include: Inflammation or other problems with the blood vessels in and around the brain, including stroke. Infections, such as meningitis.
Patients who experience sharp and stabbing headaches are more likely to report an increase in headache severity during MS flare-ups. Stress and fatigue correlate strongly with this type of pain, and alleviation of these triggers may provide relief of flare-up symptoms.
Similar findings were observed for migraines, with occurred in 31.3% of people with MS and 16.7% of controls. This type of headache was also 2.3 times more likely in patients. In line with having more frequent migraines, MS patients spent more time each month with a migraine (5.5 days vs. 2.9 days).
Common Headaches Affecting People with MS
They may come after an aura, which involves symptoms affecting vision, such as blurred vision, light flashes or blind spots; or symptoms affecting sensation, such as numbness or tingling.
Symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS)
Some of the most common symptoms include: feeling extremely tired (fatigue) problems with your eyes or your vision, such as blurred vision or eye pain. numbness or a tingling feeling in different parts of the body.
Invisible symptoms of MS – fatigue, pain, blurred vision, numbness, and brain fog – which often go unnoticed by other people, can also interfere with daily functioning and be just as debilitating.
There are no specific tests for MS. The diagnosis is given by a combination of medical history, physical exam, MRIs and spinal tap results. A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis also involves ruling out other conditions that might produce similar symptoms.
At baseline, lesions were most often observed in the subcortical region (mean 13.0 lesions/patient), while lesion volume was highest in the periventricular region (mean 2287 µl/patient).
Currently, no symptoms are specifically associated with smoldering MS. The condition causes ongoing worsening of disability with MS, even when you're feeling all right and have no new brain lesions. This gradual worsening, which can continue in times of remission, is called progression independent of relapse activity.
Your neurologist may ask for a spinal cord scan if they feel it is appropriate. An MRI scan can detect the scars caused by MS. These are called lesions and everyone gets more of these white patches in their brain as they get older. Your neurologist will judge if they are age-related or a sign of MS.
Many people with MS describe dysesthesia as a weird sensation in the head or body that's disruptive to daily life but otherwise difficult to explain. Dysesthesia may result from damage to nerves that carry information about one's senses to and from the brain.
When a damaged nerve “short circuits,” it can cause a sharp pain or a burning or squeezing sensation. A common pain in MS is what's known as Lhermitte's sign. “This occurs when there's a lesion on the cervical spine, the neck area of the spinal cord,” says Dr. Scherz.
Other symptoms include losing feeling on the skin completely (hypoesthesia) and dysesthesias (painful sensations that can affect the legs, feet, arms, and hands), which feel like burning, prickling, stabbing, ice cold, itching, or electrical sensations, notes the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Supplements that boost your immune response — for instance, selenium, copper, and manganese — may worsen autoimmune attacks in MS. Large doses of vitamin E and vitamin C can thin your blood, which may lead to MS complications. Single supplements can contain high doses, making them potentially more dangerous.