During her clinical career, Dr Sally Cheseldine observed that migraine was rarely diagnosed in individuals with severe intellectual disabilities or autism who were non-verbal and unable to say they had a sore head. Instead, there was a high level of damaging head-banging, a behavior that others with migraine report feeling tempted to do if they lack rapid pain relief.
Link between cheese cravings and autism
Dr Cheseldine also noted the suggestion that cheese cravings might be caused by migraine. Cheese contains tryptophan, and a 1990s study by McDougle and colleagues showed that people with severe autism who had very low tryptophan levels exhibited dramatic increases in stereotypic behaviors, including banging.
Diagnostic overshadowing
Beyond misdiagnosis of headaches, Dr Cheseldine argues that a significant portion of the population may have completely undiagnosed migraine due to the “diagnostic overshadowing” effect of other labels, leading to harmful consequences.
