MedWire News: Results of a US study suggest that post-traumatic stress disorder is more common in people who suffer from migraine headaches than in the general population.
Around 8% of the general population suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by stressful life events, and around twice as many women as men suffer from the condition, explain Dr B Lee Peterlin, from Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and colleagues.
Migraine also affects significantly more women than men and a possible link between such headaches and post-traumatic stress disorder has been noted in previous studies, they add.
To investigate further, the researchers studied 593 migraine patients who suffered from either chronic daily headaches or episodic migraines. The patients were aged an average of 42 years and 92% were women.
The participants completed questionnaires to assess for post-traumatic stress disorder. They also completed tests for depression and disability levels due to migraine headaches.
The researchers found that, overall, 25% of the study participants met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder and 10% were depressed.
Initial analysis indicated that participants with chronic daily headaches were more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than those with episodic migraine, but this difference was no longer significant after accounting for demographic factors and depression, which was more common in chronic daily headache sufferers.
However, participants with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder were more likely to have chronic daily headaches than episodic migraine, at 25% compared with 16%, respectively.
The researchers also found that disability due to headaches was greater in migraine patients with post-traumatic stress disorder than in those without the condition.
Dr Peterlin and team conclude in the journal Headache: “The frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder in migraineurs, whether episodic or chronic, is higher than the historically reported prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in the general population.”
They add: “Taken together, our findings suggest that identification and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in migraine sufferers is an important and potentially modifiable part of their care that may reduce migraine-related disability and progression to chronic daily headaches.”
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