NEW preventative treatments for migraine pain could be on the horizon after an innovative study at Murdoch University’s School of Psychology is completed.

Any migraine sufferer will tell you that an attack is more than just a headache - it can also cause sensitivity to light, nausea, dizziness and fatigue.

Pain researcher Dr Peter Drummond is taking this idea one step further, testing whether migraine attacks are actually peaks of pain in a constant chronic condition.

This concept is the basis for his current research, where he will be comparing the mechanisms of migraine and motion sickness.

This study is part of a one-year grant from the U.K. Migraine Trust and a three-year grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia to gain supporting evidence for Dr Drummond’s theory that migraine pain originates in the brain stem.

He will be mimicking the physiological responses to migraine without actually inducing an attack.

“The brain stem controls the body’s automatic functions such as breathing, heart rate and digestion, as well as arousing the thinking and perceptual modalities of the brain,” said Dr Drummond.

“If the migraine circuitry is continually active, then we should be able to study the mechanisms of migraine between attacks.

“Understanding these mechanisms opens up vast new possibilities for research and treatments.”

Preliminary tests by Dr Drummond have demonstrated that head pain increases sensitivity to bright light in migraine sufferers and, conversely, bright light increases headache (this does not occur in people without a history of migraine).

Dr Drummond is now testing whether there is a similar connection for nausea and head pain, comparing motion sickness in migraine sufferers and headache-free controls.

“Migraine sufferers appear to be more susceptible than most other people to motion sickness, which is a condition originating in the brain stem,” he said.

“The two conditions have several symptoms in common, such as scalp tenderness, light sensitivity and nausea.

“If motion sickness amplifies headache and changes in physiological activity associated with headache, then it could indicate that the two conditions may be different forms of the same neurological disturbance.”

Dr Drummond does not need to put subjects on a rollercoaster to stimulate feelings of motion sickness - the condition can be triggered by a simple visual illusion.

“When a pattern of regular stripes moves past the eyes, the brain is tricked into believing that the body is spinning despite messages from the balance organs that the body is still,” he said.

“This visual illusion triggers motion sickness in about 75 per cent of people within 15 minutes.”

After investigating nausea, Dr Drummond hopes to work more specifically on brain activity in migraine, such as mimicking the reduction of serotonin seen in migraine attacks.

Serotonin regulates pain messages in the brain, and understanding how this impacts on head pain, nausea and light sensitivity will provide clues about brain activity in migraine.

Dr Drummond said that identifying the mechanisms of migraine could lead to the development of preventative treatments so that migraine pain is no longer an issue.

Migraine affects about 15 per cent of the Australian population, including 20 per cent of all women.