Migraine is very frequent disorder and affects 16% of the Danish population. Migraine patients do not only have headache, and more than half of migraine patients have neck pain associated with migraine attacks. Anatomical studies have shown neuronal connections between the head and neck, and functional studies have shown that second-order neurons in the brainstem can be sensitized both from input from the trigeminal nerve and from the cervical nerves. This probably accounts for the widespread pain beyond the trigeminal innervation felt before and during migraine attacks and indicate that the neck and migraine are interconnected.

The present thesis includes three studies aimed to investigate neck pain and pericranial muscles of migraine patients. In study I-II, the symptoms of 100 migraine patients and 46 controls were examined with a semi-structured interview. The muscles of the individuals were examined for muscle tenderness with sensory testing and muscle stiffness with shear wave elastography.

The results showed, that migraine patients with ictal neck pain have increased neck muscle tenderness and stiffness compared with patients without ictal neck pain. Only local differences close to the neck were found, which indicates that neck pain during migraine attacks is associated with peripheral changes. This argues for....