Are Your Migraines an Early Sign of Dementia?
Written by Ritika Jhawar
Edited by Christine Yee
May 2, 2021
Edited by Christine Yee
May 2, 2021
Everyone has experienced a headache before– and many of us blame it on lack of sleep, water, movement, or even a combination of the three. But are there deeper meanings as to why some of us get persistent headaches? Multiple studies have shown that migraines could have a positive relationship with dementia, but it remains difficult to tell whether these studies are biased or not. A UK study analyzing this association relies on information compiled from the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA), a computerized system used by medical practitioners for arranging medical and demographic data (Karel Kostev et. al., 2019). For their research, one group of patients, aged 60 to 80 with no prior diagnosis of dementia or mild cognitive impairment, had to have received a migraine diagnosis within the last 12 months. The second group had similar criteria, however these individuals were required to have no migraine diagnosis within the same time frame. Participants in each of the two groups were paired one on one based off of scores from an algorithm scheme of age, gender, disease, co-diagnoses, etc. The study observed that patients diagnosed with migraines seemed more likely to develop dementia within the next 10 years. However, this correlation was only seen in women participants. Physicians and professors backed up this conclusion by stating that women tend to have more severe migraines, which is likely to have caused the stronger positive relation (Karel Kostev et. al., 2019).
This study is both strong and weak in a few ways. Stronger aspects include the large amount of patients being studied through the use of real-world data, along with the innovative aspect of pairing. By creating these duos of similar people, scientists were able to exclude more external differences (such as old vs. young, previous diagnosis of mental disorders vs no diagnosis, etc.) when trying to come to significant conclusions of at risk populations. One lagging aspect was the limitation of participants between 60 to 80 years old. This could lead to conflicting results due to the small age range. Migraine headaches are most prevalent in young adults, thus research involving this population could be more insightful. In addition, the elderly are more prone to misdiagnosis of cerebral lesions as migraine headaches, which could have also affected the conclusions because it would increase the incidence of headache verifications (Karel Kostev et. al., 2019).
Overall, more studies are needed to come to a solid answer. Failing to adjust for these common issues can create confounding results, which is why it is important to further research and conduct studies that can draw accurate conclusions.
Work Cited
IOS Press. (2019, August 14). Migraine diagnoses positively associated with all-cause dementia. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 22, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190814090605.htm
Karel Kostev, Jens Bohlken, Louis Jacob. Association Between Migraine Headaches and Dementia in More than 7,400 Patients Followed in General Practices in the United Kingdom. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 2019; 1 DOI: 10.3233/JAD-190581
Image Source: “Stress Neuralgia Headache” by Christian Dorn licensed under CC-0