Migraine Linked to Childhood Abuse

Washington: A new study by the American Headache Society’s Women’s Issues Section Research Consortium strongly suggests that migraine is linked to childhood abuse.

Researchers found that migraineurs who had been physically or emotionally abused as children and/or had suffered neglect had noticeably higher number of comorbid pain conditions compared to those who had not been abused.

Gretchen E. Tietjen from the University of Toledo Medical Center and his team examined 1348 headache clinic patients with physician-diagnosed migraine to come up with their findings.

Sixty one percent participants at least one comorbid pain condition and 58percent said they had a history of abuse or trauma.

It was seen that the number of maltreatment types suffered in childhood were related to the number of comorbid pain in adulthood.

Dr. Tietjen said: "Our study found that while childhood maltreatment is associated with depression, the child abuse-adult pain relationship is not fully mediated by depression
."

He added: "Since migraine onset preceded onset of the comorbid pain conditions in our population, treatment strategies such as cognitive behavioral therapy may be particularly well suited in these cases."

The study has been published in the January issue of Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain .