What Are the Symptoms of Silent Migraines?

Migraine FAQs: What are symptoms of silent migraines?

Common symptoms of silent migraines may include:

• Speech disturbance
• Migraine aura
• Vision changes
• Seeing flashes or flickering lights
• Seeing zigzag lines or waves, also called fortification illusions
• Seeing spots, stars, halos, circles, lines, shimmering, other shapes or colors
• Blurry vision
• Loss of vision
• Cloudy vision
• Other visual disturbances
• Seeing three-dimensional effects
• Seeing dark areas
• Migraine sensory aura symptoms such as
• Tingling or numbness
• Feeling pins and needles
• Odd sensations in a body part
• Clumsiness or weakness in the limbs
• Vertigo

Other symptoms of silent migraines include:

• Amnesia
• Confusion
• Change in mood
• Hearing loss
• Vomiting
• Abdominal pain

Because many of the symptoms of silent migraines are the same as the symptoms for stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes called a mini-stroke, it is very important to see a medical professional immediately to diagnose the cause of the symptoms. Ruling out stroke and other more serious disorders is crucial since the typical migraine head pain is not present. Sometimes with TIA, the vision changes create dark images and don't change whereas the silent migraine symptoms are bright and keep changing.