By KATY SAVAGE
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CHESTER, Vt.— Beth Morton couldn’t concentrate. Sometimes she would forget what she was doing because her brain was in such a fog. Other times, her head hurt and she felt nauseous.
Morton just completed her PhD in education research from Boston College and was working at the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. She was researching student assessment data to better understand how teacher instruction impacted test scores.
Morton had to leave her work behind last January and move back home to Chester because her migraine symptoms became too severe to work full time.
“I couldn’t guarantee that I was going to be there for client meetings,” Morton said.
Morton, 39, has had migraines since high school, but now she has daily symptoms.
Morton called the symptoms “disabling.”
Now, she’s trying to spread awareness about the disease by bringing a documentary called “Out of My Head” to the Claremont Opera House June 7. She needs to sell at least 62 tickets in advance for the documentary to be shown.
“We’re trying to get enough people to come see it,” said Morton.
Approximtely 37 million people have migraines a year, but there are only about 500 headache doctors in the country.
“It’s something that’s not taken very seriously,” said University of Vermont professor and headache doctor Robert Shapiro.
Shapiro, who is one of the people featured in the documentary, sees thousands of patients a year but said many don’t seek treatment for migraines because there is so much stigma associated with the disease.
Young doctors are even discouraged from becoming headache specialists, Shapiro said, because there is so little funding for their research.
Shapiro compared migraine symptoms to waking up in the morning.
“It’s effectively another brain state,” said Shapiro.
Dim light can be painful, he said. Soft sounds and light touch are symptoms of migraine, as is vertigo.
“Your whole perceptional world gets turned up,” Shapiro said.
Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, nasal congestion and brain fog — but that’s just the start, said Shapiro, explaining individual symptoms vary.
Shapiro, who has a PhD in autonomic nervous systems, started studying migraines 30 years ago, when he saw significant research opportunities in an area to which few doctors were paying attention.
Shapiro has been advocating for more funding for migraine research for the past 11 years, as part of the Headache on The Hill annual lobbying event in Washington, D.C., organized by the Alliance for Headache Disorders.
Shapiro frequently see patients like Morton, who can’t work because their migraines are so debilitating.
Morton, who has never met Shapiro, said she has tried just about everything to stop migraine pain, from nerve blocks to Botox injections and acupuncture.
Though Morton is capable of living independently, her mother, Linda, checks in every few days.
“(The disease) put a lot of her life on hold,” Linda said. “As someone who suffers a great deal of pain, she’s learned to tolerate that.”
Morton doesn’t have a medical background but she’s made her disease her research project.
Morton is hoping a new drug will allow her to return to the research career she left behind and the quality of life that got stripped from her.
The new drug for migraines has completed clinical trials and awaits approval from the Food and Drug
Administration, which is expected to make a decision in June. If approved, it would be the first migraine drug to target the underlying cause of migraines. The drugs would work by blocking the molecule calcitonin gene–related peptide, or CGRP
“We can only hope that … it gives her some release to get back and work and be able to enjoy life,” Linda said.
Meanwhile, Morton is spreading awareness locally.
She’s hanging posters for the documentary to get people to buy tickets.
“Out of My Head” was created by Jacki Ochs and Susan Styron. It highlights Styron’s attempts to understand her daughter’s migraine attacks.
The documentary will be shown at the Claremont Opera House June 7 at 7:30 p.m., if Morton is able to sell enough tickets in advance.Six tickets had been sold as of Monday and 56 still needed to be sold. Tickets cost $10 and can be purchased athttps://gathr.us/screening/23401.
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