Prevalence and association of lifestyle and medical‐, psychiatric‐, and pain‐related comorbidities in patients with migraine: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Background and Objectives Migraine has been associated with many comorbidities. However, lifestyle factors and the presence of comorbid diseases have not previously been extensively studied in the same sample. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle factors and comorbid diseases between patients with migraine and migraine‐free controls with subgroup analyses to determine the pathophysiology and possible consequences. Methods This cross‐sectional study recruited 1257 patients with migraine between the ages of 20 and 65 years from a headache outpatient clinic in Taiwan and 496 non‐migraine controls. All participants completed questionnaires regarding demographics, migraine diagnosis, sleep, headache burden, and medical, pain, and psychiatric conditions. Participants also underwent a structured interview. The associations between comorbidities and migraine were investigated and further stratified by sex and aura. Results Patients with migraine with aura had an unhealthier lifestyle compared with controls in the form of current smoking status (15.5% [67/431] vs. 11.5% [57/496], p = 0.013). Furthermore, medical‐ (e.g., thyroid disease; 7.2% [91/1257 vs. 2.8% [14/496]; p = 0.006), psychiatric‐ (e.g., depression; 6% [76/1257 vs. 2.6% [13/496]; p = 0.031), and pain‐related (e.g., fibromyalgia; 8% [101/1257 vs. 3.2% [16/496]; p = 0.006) comorbidities were more prevalent in patients compared with controls. Subgroup analyses revealed that chronic migraine, migraine with aura, and female sex were associated with a greater number of significant comorbidities than episodic migraine, migraine without aura, and male patients with migraine, respectively. Conclusion Individuals seeking treatment for migraine reported greater levels of smoking and medical, psychiatric, and pain conditions than non‐treatment‐seeking healthy controls who were recruited from the community. Understanding the relationship between migraine and comorbid diseases may improve medical care as well as the quality of life.

Conversion from chronic to episodic migraine in patients treated with galcanezumab in real life in Italy: the 12-month observational, longitudinal, cohort multicenter GARLIT experience

“…We envision that some patients, perceiving persisting a long-term benefit, might be capable of reverting the migraine-driven vicious circles affecting different aspects of life, e.g., lifestyle and psychosocial situations. Once the frequency of migraine attacks decreases, patients are more likely to lead a healthier lifestyle and be less impacted by the fear of pain and psychosocial stress [ 33 ]. This indirect advantage exerted by mAb targeting the CGRP pathway is also supported by the no-return to the baseline condition after 3 months of suspension [ 34 ].…”

Discontinuing monoclonal antibodies targeting CGRP pathway after one-year treatment: an observational longitudinal cohort study

“…lifestyle and psychosocial situations. Once migraine attacks have decreased, patients can enjoy more likely a healthier lifestyle, being less impacted by psychosocial stress [ 26 ]. Interestingly, a longer-lasting benefit (50%response rate at F-UP visits) was not related to clinical baseline characteristics (migraine frequency and disability) or the type of anti-CGRP or CGRP receptor antibody, but to the extent of the beneficial effect obtained in the one-year treatment (last month MMDs and response rate, Table 2 and Fig.…”

Identifying genetic variants for age of migraine onset in a Han Chinese population in Taiwan

“…This could be because the participants were all recruited from Dr. Yang’s outpatient clinic focusing on headache. Dr. Yang is a headache specialist and he received referral of patients with intractable headache from clinics, especial migraine with aura because of its unique presentation and higher risk of comorbidity [ 45 ]. This is evidenced by the higher MIDAS score of the aura group than that of the non-aura group in Table 1 .…”