Depression in chronic migraine: severity and clinical features

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Chronic migraine (CM) is a common medical condition affecting 2.4% of the general population. Depression is one of the most frequent comorbid disorders in CM. METHOD: Seventy patients diagnosed with chronic migraine were studied. All patients evaluated filled out the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Depression severity was divided into none or minimal depression, mild, moderate, and severe. RESULTS: BDI ranged from 4 to 55, mean 21 ± 10.7. Moderate or severe depression, were present in 58.7% of the patients . Some degree of depression appeared in 85.8% of patients. The BDI scores correlated with pain intensity (p = 0.02). Severe depression was more frequent in patients with comorbid fibromyalgia and in patients reporting fatigue. CONCLUSION: The BDI is an easy tool to access depression in CM patients. Suicide risk assessment is needed in CM patients. Patients with fibromyalgia and fatigue are at even higher risk for severe depression.

Factors associated with anxiety and depression in the management of acoustic neuroma patients

“…4 It is therefore important to investigate anxiety and depression in this patient group, given that the individual symptoms associated with acoustic neuromas have been related to these outcomes in other patient groups. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] For example, elevated levels of anxiety and/or depression have been found in patients with tinnitus, [9][10][11][12] hearing loss, 8,13,14 facial paralysis, 15 headaches, 6,7,16 and dizziness and vertigo. 5,17 Given that most acoustic neuroma patients typically experience many of these physical symptoms before or after active management, 18 it is likely that the burden of multiple impairments would increase the risk of anxiety and depression in this population.…”

Cephalalgiaphobia: a possible specific phobia of illness

“…Anxiety and mood disorders are the most important conditions in CM, affecting up to 85% of patients [2][3][4], causing significant decrease in their quality of life [5]. Anxiety disorders were found in 76% of CM patients, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) in 52%, and phobias in 54% [6,7].…”

Correlation between migraine subtipes and depression

“…There seems to be a bi-directional relationship between migraine and depression, with each disorder increasing the risk of the other one [7][8][9][10] . however there are few studies evaluating the severity of depressive symp-toms in patients with chronic migraine 10 . Also, it is still unclear whether the co-morbid association between migraine and depression increases the risk of transformation of episodic migraine to chronic migraine and/or increases the risk of development of medication overuse behavior.…”