People with migraine are more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than non-migraineurs, according to a recent study published in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain. Moreover, men with migraine are four times more likely to experience PTSD than females with migraine disease.
Lead author B. Lee Peterlin, DO, and colleagues conducted the study, which is reported to be the only one so far to look at the connection between migraine and PTSD. The findings have led researchers to believe sex hormones are important in the connection between PTSD and migraine.
Additional factors may also play a role in that connection, including a person’s age at the time of the traumatic event and the type of event itself.
When children experience trauma at age 12 or younger, the authors note, the risk of developing depression is higher than developing PTSD. When such an event occurs at age 13 or older, however, the risk of developing PTSD is greater. Childhood abuse, a high rate of which is found among migraineurs, typically occurs before children are 13. Other traumatic events reported by those with migraine and PTSD, however, such as car accidents and combat, occur to people in their teen years and beyond. In the migraine population, then, all these factors may combine to increase the risk of PTSD, especially for men.
Researchers also found the combination of migraine and PTSD correlates to a higher rate of headache-related disability than migraine alone.
These findings have important implications for treatment.
“The current data indicate that behavioral PTSD treatment alone can positively influence chronic pain conditions and disability,” Dr. Peterlin wrote. “Therefore, physicians should consider screening migraine sufferers for PTSD, and men in particular. Further, in those migraineurs with PTSD, behavioral therapy should be considered, alone or in combination with pharmacological treatment.”
