March 7, 2022
Every once in a while, about halfway through my morning runs, I lose vision in the corner of one of my eyes. With that sign, I know that my next few hours are going to be incredibly unpleasant. Due to the fact that I can’t see the terrain under my feet, I walk home and immediately take two ibuprofen, attempting to make a coffee at the same time to get some caffeine in my system before the next stage, struggling with all the switches and lids as I lose vision in one of my eyes. After drinking the coffee as fast as possible, I then hobble to my room, usually with my eyes shut as the photophobia sets in. And, for the next few hours, I try to not move as much as possible, with the smallest movement making me nauseous.
This is generally what a migraine feels like to me. And, during today’s migraine, I noticed that the aura that filled my vision looked a lot like my usual visual snow (for those that don’t know, static that lingers in the background of my vision). So, this post is dedicated to the one medicine that seems to treat both visual snow and migraines.
Migraines with auras and visual snow are both associated with overactivation of the lingual gyrus. One medicine, lamotrigine, treats both of these conditions off label, with its main uses for epilepsy and bipolar disorder. Of note is that it acts on sigma receptors unlike similar medicines. Originally, my guess was that it acts on the sigma-2 receptors of the lingual gyrus, however, this gene seems to be underexpressed in this region of the brain. Regardless, I wonder if other sigma-2 receptor agonists may help with migraines?
On February 27, 2022, I thought it would be a great idea to create some sort of content - writing, art, coding, etc. - every day of the next month. Luckily, the alliteration worked out. This should be the seventh post in the series.