Depressive symptoms increased during migraine headache

(HealthDay)—Patients report increased depressive symptomatology in the migraine headache phase of a migraine attack, according to a study published online Nov. 4 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Simone de Vries Lentsch, from the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues performed a prospective diary study involving 487 participants with migraine. During a one-month period, participants completed a daily diary on migraine and acute depressive symptoms. One migraine attack was randomly selected per participant. A migraine attack consisted of six days around an attack and included the interictal, premonitory, ictal, and postdromal phases.

The researchers found that patients scored higher on acute depressive symptoms during a migraine headache day than on all other days of the migraine attack. No early warning signs were seen for an upcoming headache attack via acute depressive symptomatology. Compared with those without lifetime depression, migraine patients with lifetime depression scored higher for acute depressive symptoms during all days of the migraine attack.

"Acute depressive symptoms (especially mood changes and loss of interest) are not 'early warning' signals that precede a migraine headache, but migraine patients do experience more acute depressive symptoms during a migraine headache, independent of life time depression," the authors write.

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