Migraine comorbid with depression is common and is often encountered in clinical practice. The comorbidity may lead to more serious conditions with other symptoms and a longer duration of treatment and it may impose heavy economic and social burdens, directly or indirectly, on patients and their families. Numerous studies have been published on the association of migraine with depression. Numerous literature have showed that the comorbidity may have a common complicated pathogenic mechanism involving biopsychosocial characteristics, including abnormal brain development and shared genetic basis, as well as neurotransmitters, sex hormones and stress. In addition, some studies have identified the multiple, bidirectional relationship between migraine and depressive disorder. We searched the literature for the possible common mechanisms between migraine and depression and classified the research results.

BackgroundHypochondriac concerns are associated with the treatment-difficulty of bipolar disorder, which might be due to the personality styles and affective states.MethodsWe invited outpatients with bipolar I disorder (BD I, n = 87), bipolar II disorder (BD II, n = 92) and healthy volunteers (n = 129) to undergo the Illness Attitude Scales and Parker Personality Measure tests, and measurements of concurrent affective states.ResultsCompared to healthy volunteers, BD I and BD II patients scored significantly higher on mania, hypomania and depression. BD I and BD II patients also scored significantly higher on Symptom Effect and Treatment Seeking, and BD II patients scored higher on Patho-thanatophobia and Hypochondriacal Belief. BD II in addition scored higher on Patho-thanatophobia than BD I did. In controls, the Dependent style predicted Patho-thanatophobia and Symptom Effect, Schizoid with Hypochondriacal Belief; in BD I, Narcissistic (−) with Hypochondriacal Belief, Histrionic with Patho-thanatophobia and Hypochondriacal Belief, depression with Hypochondriacal Belief, and hypomania with Symptom Effect and Hypochondriacal Belief; in BD II, depression with Symptom Effect and Hypochondriacal Belief, mania with Symptom Effect.ConclusionsBipolar disorder, especially BD II, is associated with greater hypochondriac concerns, which relates to personality disorder functioning styles and concurrent affective states.

Background: Body image concerns are associated with the poor prognosis of bipolar disorder, but it is unknown whether bipolar I (BD I) and II (BD II) types differ in these concerns and their associations with personality styles or affective states. Subjects and methods: We therefore invited 89 BD I, 91 BD II patients, and 159 healthy volunteers to undergo the tests of the Body Image Concern Scale (BICS), the Mood Disorder Questionnaire, the Hypomania Checklist-32, the Plutchik-van Praag Depression Inventory, and the Parker Personality Measure. Results: Both BD I and BD II displayed higher scores of ongoing affective states and of personality disorder functioning styles than healthy controls did. BD II scored higher on all six BICS scales than controls did, and higher on five than BD I did. The depressive measure predicted four, and Dependent style predicted three BICS scales in BD I; and the depressive measure predicted all six BICS scales, hypomanic measure predicted one, and Avoidant style predicted one in BD II. Conclusions: Body image concerns and their associations with the affective states and personality styles were different in BD I and BD II, suggesting different pathological mechanisms, clinical symptom severities and managements for the two types of bipolar disorder.