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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2024 Sep 24;103(6):e209747.
doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000209747. Epub 2024 Aug 21.

Migraine and Risk of Parkinson Disease in Women: A Cohort Study

Ricarda S Schulz  1 , Toivo Glatz  1 , Julie E Buring  1 , Pamela M Rist  1 , Tobias Kurth  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Migraine and Risk of Parkinson Disease in Women: A Cohort Study

Ricarda S Schulz et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Background and objectives: Migraine and Parkinson disease (PD) are common neurologic disorders, which are hypothesized to share some pathophysiologic mechanisms. However, data on the association between migraine and risk of developing PD are sparse. We estimate the effect of migraine, migraine subtypes, and migraine episode frequency on the risk of developing PD in middle-aged and older women.

Methods: We used data from the Women's Health Study, a United States-based cohort of women in health professions aged 45 years and older at baseline (1992-1995). Only women with complete self-reported information on migraine and headache and no history of PD were included. Participants were followed up for self-reported physician-diagnosed PD through December 31, 2021. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% CIs of the association between migraine, migraine subtypes, and migraine episode frequency and the risk of developing PD.

Results: A total of 39,312 women were included in the analyses. Among those, 7,321 women (18.6%) reported any migraine at baseline, of whom 2,153 (5.5%) reported a history of migraine, 2,057 (5.2%) reported migraine with aura, and 3,111 (7.9%) reported migraine without aura. During a mean follow-up of 22.0 years, 685 PD cases were reported. Of those, 128 (18.7%) were reported by women who also reported any migraine and 557 (81.3%) by women without any migraine. After adjusting for confounding, the HR for the association of any migraine on the risk of PD was 1.07 (0.88-1.29). Compared with women without migraine, the HRs (95% CI) for PD were 0.87 (0.59-1.27) for migraine with aura, 1.21 (0.93-1.58) for migraine without aura, and 1.05 (0.76-1.45) for history of migraine. Compared with those with a migraine frequency of less than monthly, the HRs were 1.09 (0.64-1.87) for a monthly frequency and 1.10 (0.44-2.75) for a weekly or greater frequency.

Discussion: In this large cohort of women, the risk of developing PD was not elevated among those experiencing migraine, irrespective of migraine subtypes or the frequency of migraine. The generalizability of our findings to other populations, such as men, should be further investigated.

Trial registration information: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00000479.

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Conflict of interest statement

R.S. Schulz, J.E. Buring, and P. Rist report no relevant disclosures. T. Glatz has received grants from the Volkswagen Foundation and the QUEST Center for Responsible Research (Berlin Institute of Health, Germany). T. Kurth has received research grants from the Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss (G-BA, Federal Joint Committee, Germany), the Bundesministerium für Gesundheit (BMG, Federal Ministry of Health, Germany), and has received personal compensation from Eli Lilly and Company, Novartis, the BMJ, and Frontiers. Go to Neurology.org/N for full disclosures.

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