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Adolescents with chronic migraine commonly exhibit depressive symptoms

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Abstract

Psychiatric comorbidity in patients with headache contributes to poorer prognosis, chronification of disease, poor response to treatment, increased cost of treatment, and decreased quality of life. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the depressive symptoms in adolescents with chronic and episodic migraines and healthy adolescents. The study was performed between November 2010 and November 2011. All patients completed a detailed headache questionnaire comprising of demographical and clinical data and were instructed to fill out a headache diary over a 2-month period. The subjects ranged in age from 13 to 19 years. To evaluate depression symptoms, all of the subjects were asked to fill out the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). A total of 137 participants were evaluated; 44 had episodic migraine (EM), 46 had chronic migraine (CM) and 47 were control subjects. Patients with a history of chronic migraine had significantly higher scores on the BDI than the other participants. Patients with chronic migraine had BDI scores that were 8.8 points higher than controls [95 % CI (β) = 5.0, 12.6] and 5.8 points higher than patients with EM [95 % CI (β) = 2.2, 9.4]. The main finding of this study was that chronic migraine is strongly associated with depression symptoms, regardless of demographic data. Comorbid depression may increase the total burden of migraine and diagnosis and treatment of depression in adolescents with migraine is likely to result in a better prognosis.

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Acknowledgments

This study was sponsored by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP).

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Federal University of São Paulo, Botucatu Street 720, São Paulo, 04023-900, Brazil

    Juliana Harumi Arita, Jaime Lin, Ricardo Silva Pinho, Mario Fernando Prieto Peres, Luiz Celso Pereira Vilanova & Marcelo Rodrigues Masruha

  2. Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

    Thais Soares Cianciarullo Minett

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Maria Sylvia de Souza Vitalle & Mauro Fisberg

  4. Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa, São Paulo, Brazil

    Mario Fernando Prieto Peres

Authors
  1. Juliana Harumi Arita
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  2. Jaime Lin
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  3. Ricardo Silva Pinho
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  4. Thais Soares Cianciarullo Minett
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  5. Maria Sylvia de Souza Vitalle
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  6. Mauro Fisberg
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  7. Mario Fernando Prieto Peres
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  8. Luiz Celso Pereira Vilanova
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  9. Marcelo Rodrigues Masruha
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Correspondence to Marcelo Rodrigues Masruha.

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Arita, J.H., Lin, J., Pinho, R.S. et al. Adolescents with chronic migraine commonly exhibit depressive symptoms. Acta Neurol Belg 113, 61–65 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-012-0135-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-012-0135-9

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