The influence of anxiety and depression on headache in adolescent migraineurs: a case-control study

ABSTRACT

Background

Migraine is commonly linked to a range of psychiatric comorbidities, primarily anxiety and depression. The present study compared the frequency of anxiety and depression disorders in migraine and non-migraine adolescents and evaluated the relation of depression and anxiety to migraine characteristics.

Methods

In this case-control study, 234 adolescents (112 migraineurs and 122 non-migraine adolescents) aged 13–18 years were evaluated. A headache questionnaire as well as the Beck Anxiety Inventory and Children’s Depression Inventory were completed to investigate the prevalence of headache, anxiety, and depression.

Results

The average age of participants was 15.77±2 years in the case group and 15.39±1.79 years in the control group. We found significantly higher levels of mild, moderate, and severe anxiety (38.4%, 23.2%and 23.2% respectively) in the migraine group compared to the control group (24.2%, 5.8%and 10.0% respectively) (p<0.001). Significantly more children in the control group (29.6%) than in the case group (10.1%) had a non-depressive CDI score (p=0.005). There was a significant difference between patients with moderate and severe anxiety in terms of attack frequency and duration. Depressed migraineurs recorded higher attack severities and frequencies than migraineurs without depression.

Conclusion

Anxiety and depression are common in adolescents with migraine and can be associated with more burdensome attacks.

KEYWORDS:

• Headache
• migraine
• depression
• anxiety
• adolescents

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants of the present study, Ms. Darjani and Mr. Ghadbeigi in the Iranian Headache Association, who contributed in data acquisition, and Sina Hospital Research Center for data processing.

Data availability statement

Data available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Authors’ contributions

E Jafari contributed to the study conception and design, acquisition of data and revision of the manuscript. H Kazemizadeh contributed to the study conception and drafting of the manuscript. M Togha contributed to the study conception and design, acquisition of data and the critical revision of the manuscript. S Haghighi contributed to the acquisition of data. Z Salami and D Shahamati contributed to data entry and processing. F Martami and V Baigi contributed to analysis and statistics of the data. F Etesam contributed to the study conception and design. All authors have approved the final version to be published and all authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.