WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have migraines and who are also depressed are more likely to have experienced childhood abuse than non-depressed women, researchers report in the Sept. 4 issue of Neurology.
Gretchen E. Tietjen, M.D., from the University of Toledo in Ohio, and colleagues surveyed 949 women with migraine regarding their history of maltreatment and headache as well as their current symptoms of depression.
The researchers found that 18 percent of women reported major depression and 38 percent reported physical or sexual abuse, and abuse was reported more frequently among women with depression. Sexual abuse before 12 years of age was associated with major depression (odds ratio 2.30), and the association was stronger among those who were abused both before and after 12 years of age (OR, 5.08). Compared to women without depression, women with major depression were twice as likely to report multiple types of abuse.
"Childhood maltreatment was more common in women with migraine and concomitant major depression than in those with migraine alone," Tietjen and colleagues conclude. "The association of childhood sexual abuse with migraine and depression is amplified if abuse also occurs at a later age."
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
