A comparison of familial and sporadic migraine in a headache clinic population.

We compared the clinical, psychological and pharmacological characteristics of patients with familial migraine and patients with sporadic migraine. Five hundred and thirty consecutive new patients attending our Headache Center over a two-year period were involved in the study. The patients were divided into two groups: A. Familial migraine (famM)--at least one first-degree relative affected; B. Sporadic migraine (spoM)--no first-degree relative affected. Four hundred and twenty-four patients (80%) fulfilled the criteria for famM and 106 (20%) for spoM. The patients with famM showed a significantly (p<0.01) earlier age at onset of the disease. No significant difference in all the remaining features examined was found. Our data suggest that famM and spoM represent a single disease entity.