Migraine and depression: common genetic factors

It is no surprise that migraine causes people who suffer from it to be depressed. Their depression does not, however, originate from headaches but from a genetic predisposition. A team of researchers from Leiden and Rotterdam has published an article about this topic in the journal Neurology.

It is no surprise that migraine causes people who suffer from it to be depressed. Their depression does not, however, originate from headaches but from a genetic predisposition. A team of researchers from Leiden and Rotterdam has published an article about this topic in the journal Neurology.

Rucphen

Leiden University Medical Centre and Erasmus Medical Centre have together conducted a study into the genetically isolated population of 2,652 people who had previously taken part in the Erasmus Rucphen Family study. Genealogical data has proven that all the participants are descendents of 22 married couples that lived in the town of Rucphen between 1850 and 1900.

Aura

Of the people taking part in the study, 360 suffered from migraine. Of those, 151 had migraine with an aura, which is a form of migraine where a headache is preceded by light flashes or zigzag lines, whereas the remaining 209 saw no auras. In the study, a total of 583 people suffered from depressions, with 25 per cent of the migraine patients suffering from them as well. Of the participants who did not suffer from migraine, only 13 per cent suffered from depressions.

Heredity

By using statistical calculations the researchers were able to estimate what the relative proportion is of genetic factors to both afflictions. For migraine, that of heredity was estimated at 56 per cent; this means that 56 per cent of the affliction can be explained by genetic factors. For migraine with an aura, the number was 96 per cent. These results demonstrate that the best chance of finding migraine genes is by looking for them in people who have migraine with an aura.

Common genetic mechanism

If you look at migraine heredity in patients with depressions and without, you find that these two afflictions have common genetic factors. This is particularly true for migraine with an aura. This suggests that a common genetic mechanism exists that can cause either affliction.

Drugs

A better insight into the underlying causation mechanism could lead to drugs being developed that are better targeted at preventing both migraine and depressions. In the LUCM, the departments of Neurology and Psychiatry are working with Leiden’s public health service (GGZ) to develop a combined treatment method for migraine and depression.

Nausea

One in every ten people in the Netherlands suffers from regular bouts of migraine, when they get very bad headaches at unpredictable moments. The pain they experience is often of a pulsating type, on one side only, and intensifies when they move. The attacks last from one to three days and are accompanied by nausea, vomiting and hypersensitivity to light and sounds (migraine without an aura). With one in every three patients, the headache is preceded by problems with their eyesight, for example visions of light flashes (migraine with aura).

Chronic

People suffering from both migraine and depressions are at a higher risk that their migraine will worsen and become chronic.. This means that their attacks become more frequent, to the extent that the patient suffers from headaches half the time. Three per cent of the Dutch population suffers from chronic migraine. This often goes hand in hand with dependence on medication, resulting in patients using painkillers or migraine drugs at least 15 days out of every 30.

Links

Migraine costs the Netherlands several billion euro a year. The LUMC has been conducting research into the causes and treatment of migraine since 1977.
LUMC Hoofdpijnonderzoek

Published in previous Newsletters

Spinoza prize for ‘migraine professor’ Michel Ferrari (9 June 2009 Newsletter)


(19 January 2010/LUMC/SH)