Serotonin: a key to migraine disorders?

Nutrition Health Review | June 22, 1994| | Copyright

Are pounding headaches caused by too much blood flooding the brain? Or too little? What tells the blood vessels to contract and expand? Scientists now consider serotonin, a brain chemical, to be a crucial factor.

David E. Comings, M.D., in his classic work Tourette Syndrome and Human Behavior, postulates that low serotonin levels might cause blood vessels to dilate and cause migraine.

His reasoning involves side effects of the drug reserpine, and reserpine treatment results in the depletion of brain serotonin. "These headaches," he writes, "are relieved by the injection ...

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