Suffer from Migraines? Prepare to Be Depressed, Too

Aren't migraines bad enough?  Now a new study has found that those who have to deal with this head-splitting headache may be more prone to depression, too.

According to newswise.com, "Prevalence of depression among those with migraine is approximately twice as high as for those without the disease (men: 8.4% vs. 3.4%; women 12.4% vs. 5.7%)."  The research was done at the University of Toronto. One in every seven women, compared to one in every 16 men, reporting that they had migraines.

And if you're young, female and single, the odds are even worse. "Women with migraines who were younger than 30 had six times the odds of depression in comparison to sufferers who were aged 65 and over," newswise.com quotes lead author, Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. Unmarried individuals and migraine sufferers who had difficulties with daily activities also had high odds of depression.

Even more depressing, "For both men and women, those with migraines were much more likely to have 'ever seriously considered suicide or taking (their) own life' than were those without migraines (men: 15.6% versus 7.9%; women: 17.6% versus 9.1%).  Those under 30 had four times the lifetime risk of killing themselves.

Why?  "It may be that younger people with migraines have not yet managed to find adequate treatment or develop coping mechanisms to minimize pain and the impact of this chronic illness on the rest of their lives," newswise.com quotes co-author and former graduate student Meghan Schrumm.

So does it make you want to go out and get drunk?  Don't.  Treatments and medications exist to make life easier for those with migraines, and depression.

And on a happier note, another study has found that even moderate exercise not only treats but can prevens depression.




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