A new study from the University of Toledo demonstrates a link between emotional abuse during childhood and developing migraines as an adolescent. There has been previous migraine research that have shown an association between migraines and headaches and childhood abuse, but the data was limited on the migraine and abuse classifications, as well as which came first.
Dr. Gretchen Tietjen from the University of Toledo and her colleagues analyzed data from over 14,000 participants aged 24-32 from the Add Health Study (National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health). These participants were examined during Wave 4 of that study, and details such as migraine frequency, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse during childhood were recorded. The contributors also were asked about mental health diagnoses, including depression and anxiety.
The Results
Of the participants the University of Toledo team studied, around 14 percent had migraines. The researchers found that emotional abuse had a stronger association with migraines compared to other forms of abuse, such as physical or sexual abuse. Even when controlling for diagnoses of depression and anxiety, there was still a strong link between emotional abuse and migraines. Migraine sufferers reported higher rates of abuse compared to those without migraines, no matter the type of abuse. And finally, the emotional abuse preceded the onset of the migraines 83 percent of the time.
The researchers reported that according to their findings, the likelihood of getting migraines increased the more forms of abuse that participants reported.
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| Migraine diagram. |
Conclusion
This new study from the University of Toledo further examines the relationship between abuse and migraines. What this migraine research specifies is that emotional abuse is most closely linked to the development of migraines in adolescence, even when controlling for various factors. Even a single occurrence of emotional abuse can predispose individuals to get migraines later in life. Multiple forms of abuse only increase the likelihood of migraines in adolescents.
This study can’t establish a causal relationship between emotional abuse (or abuse of any kind) and migraines, but it does establish a gradient of an increasing association between the two, with emotional abuse preceding the migraines. Further migraine research is necessary to determine how emotional abuse has a part in the development of this health issue—and why they’re connected at all.
