So, I did some research online to see if other migraine sufferers experience extreme mood changes around the time of a migraine attack. I came across an article in the New York Times (August 4, 2010), where Dr. Dodick responds to this very question:
"Migraine is too often “bookmarked” by the start and stop of the headache, but migraine is frequently associated with symptoms other than headache before, during and after the onset of head pain. About 75 percent of migraine sufferers will experience non-headache premonitory symptoms prior to the headache pain. Patients experience a range of cognitive, emotional and physical symptoms in this phase; the most common include feeling tired and weary, difficulty concentrating, stiff neck, dizziness, light and noise sensitivity, yawning, and depression or irritability.
These non-headache symptoms usually occur within six hours before and resolve within six hours after the headache. But in a sizable minority of people, the symptoms can start within 24 hours of the pain and take more than 24 hours to resolve.
This range is important to recognize for a few reasons. First, it reflects the fact that the changes associated with a migraine attack are occurring in the brain up to three days before and one day after the headache pain begins, and therefore, the disability associated with attacks cannot be measured by the duration of the pain alone..."
You can read the entire article in Consults.
It is unfortunate that many of these premonitory symptoms are so subtle that we may not notice until the migraine has already struck. Even those that have migraine with aura (as I do) cannot always count on the "warning." I don't always get an aura, or at least not the same type of aura (usually visual or auditory, though there are many different experiences that fall under the term "aura").
