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. 2025 Apr 10:16:1567233.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1567233. eCollection 2025.

Vestibular migraine: course of symptoms during a four-year follow-up

Nese Celebisoy #  1 , Aysın Kısabay #  2 , Hüseyin Nezih Özdemir  1 , Figen Gokcay  1 , Aysegul Seyma Sarıtas  2 , Hulya Toydemir  3 , Vıldan Yayla  3 , Ilksen Isıkay  4 , İrem Erkent  4 , Ceyla Atac  5 , Sebnem Bıcakcı  6 , Feray Güleç  7 , Dılek Top Kartı  8 , Eylem Ozaydın Goksu  9
Affiliations

Vestibular migraine: course of symptoms during a four-year follow-up

Nese Celebisoy et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Background and objective: Data about the prognosis of vestibular migraine (VM) is scarce. VM patients on follow-up for at least 4 years were included in this multicenter study to evaluate the course of symptoms.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. A structured questionnaire was used inquiring demographic features, age of onset of migraine headaches and vertigo attacks, headache and vertigo attack frequency, severity, associated features and the presence of interictal dizziness and positional vertigo. Menopause, history of motion sickness, and family history of migraine were recorded. Answers of the first visit were compared with the answers of the last visit. In addition, variables considered were evaluated regarding their effect on the symptom course.

Results: 203 patients were studied. Median vertigo and headache attack frequency and severity had significantly dropped during follow-up (p < 0.01 for all comparisons). Complete resolution was reported by only 5.4%. Dizziness between the attacks was present in 67%, and positional vertigo was reported by 20.2%. Univariate analysis showed that aural symptoms (p = 0.013) and menopause (p = 0.016) were risk factors for ongoing frequent vertigo attacks. A history of motion sickness (p = 0.019) and a family history of migraine (p = 0.004) were associated with the risk of frequent migraine headaches. The presence of allodynia (p = 0.002) was associated with severe headache attacks while an early age of onset of vertigo attacks (p = 0.005) was a risk factor for continuing high-frequency vertigo attacks.

Conclusion: Though the frequency and severity of headache and vertigo attacks decrease, complete resolution is reported by a minority.

Keywords: allodynia; aural symptoms; family history of migraine; headache; menopause; motion sickness; vertigo; vestibular migraine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Selection of patients included in the study. VM, Vestibular migraine; MD, Meniere’s disease.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Vertigo and headache frequency and severity at the initial and last visit.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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