The word “migraine” is derived from a French word meaning “half a head” and is appropriate because, in most cases, the ache affects only one side of the head. In contrast to tension headache, the pain soon becomes throbbing or pulsating in kind due to its origin mainly in over-distended arteries outside the skull.

There is often a feeling of nausea or other digestive disturbance, and the pain may be so intense that it interferes with work and more than likely compel the individual to lie down. There may be more than one family member who suffers from this kind of headache, because the tendency to develop migraine is inherited. 

In cases of “classical” migraine as opposed to common migraine an attack may be heralded by a pre-headache warning or “aura,” such as spots or flashes of light before the eyes.

Migraine is a neurological disease, the most common symptom is an intense and disabling headache. Migraine headaches are usually characterized by severe pain on one or both sides of the head. 

Migraines are often accompanied by hypersensitivity to light, and/or hypersensitivity to sound and nausea.

(Elizabeth Loder MD, FACP, David Biondi DO (2003) Disease Modification in Migraine: A Concept That Has Come of Age? Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain 43 (2), 135–143).