According to the National Headache Foundation, nearly 30 million Americans suffer from migraine, with women three times more affected than men. A new study in the journal Cephalalgia used otoacoustic emission testing in order to better understand this often disabling health condition. In a study released in the April 2008 issue, researchers from the Neuropsychiatry Centre of Gazi University Hospitals found disruption of contralateral suppression in OAEs to be a possible underlying mechanism associated with sound sensitivity in migraine headaches. The study compared the results of fifty-three migraineurs to forty-one control subjects on a battery of audiological tests including pure tone audiometry, speech discrimination scores, and otoacoustic emission testing. In the subjects with migraine, mean amplitudes of TEOAEs were not suppressed by a contralateral sound stimulus, indicating dysfunction within the auditory system of migraineurs. Although several migraine treatments are available, they do not work for all sufferers and there is no cure for migraine. In light of these new findings, more researchers in the future may be looking to the cochlea for help with answers. Celphalalgia is published by Blackwell Publishing. For more information or to purchase the full article, visit www.blackwell-synergy.com/
