Migraine and the limbic system: closing the circle

A tremendous gap still exists between the disciplines of psychiatry and neurology, viewed as the study of the mind, and the brain, respectively. While functional neuroimaging has served to blur this separation, many still consider the two mutually exclusive entities. But the study of migraine and limbic pain offers convincing evidence of Viktor Frankl's dichotomous model of the individual yet dependent spheres of psyche and soma. Chronic headache, though biomedical, wrestles with emotional issues, pharmacologic response, and other behavioral occurrences and conditions that confound the headache scientist. Similarly, research has shown that a vulnerable limbic system will perhaps amplify pain after years of sensitization caused by emotional trauma, loss, or abuse. These developments point to the need for a new model that embraces the approach of "one brain, multiple manifestations." Only with a transformed understanding of the integrated psyche and soma can neuroscientists expect to truly understand human pathologies.