Just released research indicates that middle-aged women are approximately 40% more likely to become depressed if they have migraine headaches.
The study, conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston suggests that the risk of depression stays raised even if the pain stops. “For women at least, migraine is a risk for depression.” “But there’s no good biological reason why the link would not apply to men,” says lead author Tobias Kurth, M.D. Previous research suggests that the risk of depression rises as the severity of migraine increases. Kurtz said he and his colleagues will address that issue in the future.
Jason Rosenberg, M.D., director of the Johns-Hopkins Headache Center who was not involved in the study said “Its been well-known that migraine and depression occur together much more commonly than can be explained by chance.” However, Rosenberg cautions that the participants in the study were over the age of 45. “Most women develop migraine when they are well under 40.” “An older population could skew the results one way or the other.”
While there is no simple explanation for a migraine-depression relationship, frequent migraines may bring on depression by lowering a person’s quality of life, and biological factors may be involved as well….. CNN.com 2/22/12 Matt McMillen