Pictures of the mother of all headaches

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	• Migraine Oliver Sacks Vintage, 1999 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fascinating

I found the book helpful and interesting. I don't know why some reviewer's found it so difficult. It is true that he describes many case studies and that only some of those would coincide with any one person's experience (thank goodness, I'd hate for anyone to have all those symptoms). Perhaps 75% of it did not apply to me personally, but that part was interesting too. Some of the case studies were similar to my father's migraines, some similar to my mother's. My sister and my nephew have slightly different symptoms that were described. The book connected all of them. But, what made me really grateful for the book is that Sacks described (as very rare occurrences) several bizaree incidents in my life which I had never been able to explain. Times when I had told a doctor what I had experienced and had him shrug his shoulders, or even get angry and say, "How can you expect me to diagnose anything based on that?" Or simply not believe me. For many years, migraines ruled my life. It was not unusual for one to last for 3 or 4 days. Intense, unremitting pain. It took a couple of decades for them to be diagnosed. I can't tell you how many times I was treated for sinus infections. Even after diagnosis and referral to a neurologist, there was no treatment that was effective. Then my doctor started telling me about that a new drug would soon be released that might help. I hounded his office, asking if it was out yet. It was delayed and delayed, but at last Imitrex was released, first as an injection, now it is a pill. And for me it works. My doctor says that it works for approximately 70% of migraine sufferers. It changed my life. Now I can take this pill, lie down in a dark room if possible, and an hour later, the headache is gone. My neurologist said that they have now identified a flawed gene that fails to produce a protein that is common in many migraine sufferes. Imitrex interacts with the neuro receptor that is looking for that protein. But like Sacks said, migraines are overdetermined. There are many factors involved and he covered most of them in his book. He missed one. Dehydration plays a major role in my migraines. If my head begins to hurt, the first thing I do is drink a glass of water.

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the best book on migraine

This is very informative, scholarly and interesting at the same time. I read it and look at the illustrations and am amazed at how many of my life's experiences have been related to the migraine. The condition changes - or can change - throughout a lifetime. I had no idea.

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Pictures of the mother of all headaches

I read this book a few years ago when my irregular migraine attacks had become more frequent. I had them from about age 15 until now, for the first decades maybe once or twice per year, then for a while more often, now less often and less severe. It took me decades to have a name for this thing at all. I have moved about so often that I never saw one medical doctor often enough to get so specific and scientific as to find names for afflictions.
I discovered this Sacks book on migraines when I read his Hat book. Sacks helped me to understand my problem. Most impressed was I by artistic renderings of the aura, which is the most scary phenomenon, as long as you don't know a name for it.
Understanding the problem does not do away with it, but you develop a rational attitude. I know now that it comes when it comes, that no special drug helps against it, that strong painkillers reduce the problem. I had some accupuncture treatments and now it still comes, but the individual attacks are milder, I can usually function like nearly normal as soon as the aura is over, which lasts rarely longer than half an hour. Formerly I would sometimes be out of action for a whole day.
I still hate noise and light like hell for hours afterwards.

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Explains a lot

I have suffered from migraines for years, however, many of my experiences were strictly visual: without pain. I have enjoyed reading Dr. Sacks' work before and this book is no exception to the rule. I am an artist. When I saw the color plates showing what other non artists experienced visually during or before a migraine, I was floored. These images explained it all to me. I have seen the same types of things since I was a child.

Interesting book and very helpful to those who "suffer" from migraine. I put suffer in quotes because I enjoy the visual disturbances unless they occur when I am trying to read or online! I am sorry I didn't purchase this book sooner.

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Glad to be over this Migraine

I had migraines with headache from age 25 to 60. The headaches stopped a couple of years ago, but I still have very mild epidodes of the other symptoms. And I get the scotomata completely independent of the migraine. They are beautiful and I lie down to watch and enjoy them until they go away because I can't read or drive or do much else with all that shimmering in the middle of my visual field. I learned something from this book, but not a great deal. It was just too much of a drag to read and I started to lose interest about half way thru it. I was surprised to find that there was actually very little in it that resembled my own experience with migraine; I fit none of the case histories and there were probably not two pages in total that I could relate to personally. Nevertheless, this is a good book, if you have the stamina and stomach for it. The author has obviously done his homework but better work by his editors might have livened this book up a bit more for the average reader. Sometimes I wondered whether I was reading Borges instead of Sacks.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

"Balanced, authoritative . . . brilliant."  --The London Times

"Written by one of the great clinical writers of the twentieth century, Migraine . . . should be read as much for its brilliant insights into the nature of our mental functioning as for its discussion of the migraine."  --The New York Times Book Review

The many manifestations of migraine can vary dramatically from one patient to another, even within the same patient at different times. Among the most compelling and perplexing of these symptoms are the strange visual hallucinations and distortions of space, time, and body image which migraineurs sometimes experience. Portrayals of these uncanny states have found their way into many works of art, from the heavenly visions of Hildegard von Bingen to Alice in Wonderland. Dr. Oliver Sacks argues that migraine cannot be understood simply as an illness, but must be viewed as a complex condition with a unique role to play in each individual's life.

"I am sure . . . that any layman who is interested in the relation between the body and mind . . . will find the book as fascinating as I have."  --W. H. Auden, The New York Review of Books

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