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. 2013 Sep;33(12):1017-25.
doi: 10.1177/0333102413483930. Epub 2013 Apr 15.

Migraine, headache, and the risk of depression: Prospective cohort study

Pamela M Rist  1 , Markus Schürks, Julie E Buring, Tobias Kurth
Affiliations

Migraine, headache, and the risk of depression: Prospective cohort study

Pamela M Rist et al. Cephalalgia. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Background: While cross-sectional studies have shown associations between migraine and depression, few studies have been able to evaluate the association between migraine and incident depression.

Methods: A prospective cohort study among 36,016 women without a history of depression enrolled in the Women's Health Study who provided information about migraine and headache at baseline. Women were classified as either having nonmigraine headache, migraine with aura, migraine without aura, past history of migraine or no history of headache. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association between migraine and headache status and incident depression.

Results: At baseline, 5115 women reported a history of nonmigraine headache, 1805 reported migraine with aura, 2723 reported migraine without aura, and 1896 reported a past history of migraine. During 13.8 mean years of follow-up, 3833 new cases of depression occurred. The adjusted relative risks of incident depression were 1.44 (95% CI: 1.32, 1.56) for nonmigraine headache, 1.53 (95% CI: 1.35, 1.74) for migraine with aura, 1.40 (95% CI: 1.25, 1.56) for migraine without aura, and 1.56 (95% CI: 1.37, 1.77) for past history of migraine compared to no history of headache.

Conclusions: Middle-aged women with migraine or nonmigraine headache are at increased risk of incident depression. Frequent migraine attacks (weekly or daily) were associated with the highest risk for developing depression.

Keywords: Migraine; depression; epidemiology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest, but report all financial disclosures for the past three years. Dr. Rist has received funding from a training grant from the National Institute of Aging (AG00158), from the Rose Traveling Fellowship Program in Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health, and from a travel fund from the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Schürks has received an investigator-initiated research grant from the Migraine Research Foundation and honoraria from LEK Consulting for telephone surveys and from the American Academy of Neurology for educational material. Since August 2011 he is a full-time employee of Bayer HealthCare Germany. Dr. Buring has received investigator-initiated research funding and support as Principal Investigator from the US National Institutes of Health and research support for pills and/or packaging from Bayer Heath Care and the Natural Source Vitamin E Association. Dr. Kurth has received investigator-initiated research funding from the French National Research Agency, the US National Institutes of Health, Merck, the Migraine Research Foundation and the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Further, he has received honoraria from Allergan, the American Academy of Neurology and Merck for educational lectures, from the British Medical Journal for editorial work, and from MAP Pharmaceuticals for participating in a scientific advisory panel.

Comment in

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