Migraine, Headaches, and Cognition

Abstract

Objectives and Background.— The possible effects of migraine on executive abilities remain controversial; hence, we studied inter‐ictal cognitive performance of individuals with migraine and non migraine headaches (NMH) compared with headache free controls. Design and Method.— In a cross‐sectional observational study, taking place in primary care, adults aged 50 or above were evaluated by a neurobehavioral battery including several executive measures. Present history of headache was sought, and migraine was diagnosed by the ID‐Migraine questionnaire. The effect of headache type on cognitive measures was analyzed with multiple regression with adjustment by diagnosis, age, gender, education, and depressive symptoms. Results.— Among 478 participants, 23.2% reported current headache, of whom 50 were NMH, and 61 were migraine headaches. No group differences were found in the majority of cognitive measures. Compared with controls, migraine subjects performed worse on a test of attention, while NMH participants presented more intrusions and worse discriminability in memory recognition plus a lower performance on semantic memory tests. Conclusion.— The presence of headaches in late adulthood was related to a worse performance on few measures of executive functioning, suggesting that cognitive impact is not specific to migraine but might be associated to headache.

Cognitive dysfunctions and psychological symptoms in migraine without aura: a cross-sectional study

“…In particular, our results revealed lower scores in the subscales assessing verbal memory, attention, frontal and visuospatial functions, in line with several previous studies [8–15]. The low score on the memory scale (i.e., poor retrieval abilities) might be ascribed to defective strategic and organizational aspects of learning [9], also in consideration of the lower attentional and executive function scores in MwoA patients compared to HCs.…”

“…Indeed, some studies did not find any cognitive difference between migraine patients and non-migraine subjects [4–7]. Conversely, other studies revealed that migraine patients are characterized by a poorer cognitive performance [8–15] during both interictal [11–13] or ictal [16, 17] phases when compared to HCs. In particular, it has been suggested that migraine patients might show selective defects in executive/attention and visuospatial domains [9, 11, 13–15].…”

“…Due to its sensitivity to executive/attention and visuospatial impairments, MoCA seems particularly suitable as a neuropsychological assessment tool in migraine patients, who might show selective defects in such cognitive domains [9, 11, 13–15]. Moreover, we investigated possible relationships between cognitive performances and psychological symptoms such as depression, anxiety and apathy.…”

Duration and frequency of migraines affect cognitive function: evidence from neuropsychological tests and event-related potentials

“…Some longitudinal studies have suggested fewer dysfunctions in the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and executive functions in migraineurs. In addition, some studies have not found any significant differences in cognitive performance between migraine patients and controls [13]. These inconsistencies could be due to methodological issues including different migraine assessment methods and the program of cognitive assessment.…”

Unintentional Injuries among Psychiatric Outpatients with Major Depressive Disorder

“…The visual analog scale (VAS) was used to evaluate the average intensity of headache in the past week. Headache was investigated because severe headache is related to impaired cognitive function [18]. …”