Interictal and postictal cognitive changes in migraine

The question whether symptom-free migraine patients show cognitive impairme nts compared to matched control subjects is addressed, and also whether mig raine patients show transient cognitive impairments induced by an attack. T he Neuropsychological Evaluation System (NES2) was administered once in an interictal period and twice within 30 h after different migraine attacks. S ince cognitive impairments could be related to attack duration or severity, cognitive performance was compared during a postictal period after sumatri ptan use and during a postictal period after habitual nonvasoactive medicat ion use. Twenty migraineurs without aura, 10 migraineurs with aura, and 30 matched headache-free controls participated in the study. During a headache -free period, migraineurs without aura responded as quickly as controls, wh ile migraineurs with aura were slower than controls during all tasks specif ically requiring selective attention. These effects were not aggravated by a preceding migraine attack, irrespective of medication use and attack dura tion.