The Role of Electroencephalography in the Evaluation of Patients With Migraine and Tension-Type Headache

Headache disorders are one of the most prevalent and disabling conditions worldwide. Headache is classified as primary or secondary according to its underlying pathophysiology. The most common primary headaches are migraines and tension-type headaches (TTH). Their diagnosis is based mostly on clinical presentation, but sometimes this can be challenging. In order to improve the differential diagnostics of these conditions, we evaluated the role of electroencephalography (EEG) in diagnostic workup. EEG records electrical activity of the brain cortex. It is mostly used to diagnose epilepsy, but EEG abnormalities are found in many headache patients as well. In this review, we provide an overview of EEG-based headache-related research. We compare their results in the hope of better understanding the neural changes in migraine and TTH. According to our findings, EEG might be helpful in the search for potential headache biomarkers, but further studies are necessary.