Sufferes of migraine susceptible to depression

By Shelby D Burns, Sun, February 26, 2012

Women who have a tendency for migraines or have had them in them in the past have a greater risk for developing depression. This new research gathered data on more than 36,000 women who were all classified as not having depression. The participated in the Women’s Health Study and gave information about their migraine headache history.

These women were broken into four categories. One group had active migraine with aura. The second group had active migraine without aura. The third set of women had a past history of migraine but had not experienced one within the last year. The final group of women had no history of migraine headache at all.

If a total of 36,154 women, approximately 6500 had current or past problems with migraines and during the following 14 years of the study more than half developed depressive symptoms. Those with a history of migraine were nearly twice as likely to develop depression. Type of migraine made little difference.

“This is one of the first large studies to examine the association between migraine and the development of depression over time… We hope our findings will encourage doctors to speak to their migraine patients about the risk of depression and potential ways to prevent depression,” said Tobias Kurth, MD, ScD, with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Inserm in France and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

This information is particularly important for women who are dealing with migraine over many years. If there doctor knows they are more susceptible to depression, he can look for signs and begin early treatment and intervention to prevent the depression from becoming debilitating.

Source: MedicalNewsToday, American Academy of Neurology

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