Hemiplegic Migraine is a rare but not an uncommon type of migraine that can be particularly debilitating. Since the beginning of 2022, Migraine Ireland have seen an increase in patient contact and diagnosis for Hemiplegic migraine

Symptoms can mimic stroke and sufferers often end up in A & E because they are unsure of what is happening, if it is migraine or something more sinister. 

Symptoms can include many of the following;

• Numbness or weakness on one side of the body (hemiplegia)
• One side of the face can fall which looks like a stroke
• Headache
• Visual disturbances and aura (sparkles, shimmers)
• Numbness or tingling in extremities
• Slurred speech or trouble speaking
• Fever
• Confusion, brain fog and in extreme and very rare cases possible unconsciousness

To help us to understand this type of migraine, we are delighted to welcome Prof. Anne Ducros.

Anne Ducros is Professor of Neurology at Montpellier University in France since September 2013, and leads the Headache and Migraine team in the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital of Montpellier. She is also member of the Connectome team in the Charles Coulomb Laboratory at Montpellier University since 2018.

She studied medicine at Montpellier University and obtained her MD and specialty in neurology in 1997. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, obtained in 1998, in the field of genetics of familial hemiplegic migraine.

Her clinical activities are entirely dedicated to the management of patients with severe or rare primary or secondary headaches, including hemiplegic migraine.

Her research interests include primary and secondary headaches, with a particular interest in the links between migraine and stroke, and in the study of clinical manifestations and outcomes in familial hemiplegic migraine (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Ducros+A.&sort=date)

She is an associate editor of Cephalalgia and past-president of the French Headache Society.

With thanks to the HSE National Lottery Grant CHO Area 9 – Dublin North for the funding for this event. The Scheme to Support National Organisations is funded by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Rural and Community Development