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Mid‐Cycle Headaches and Their Relationship to Different Patterns of Premenstrual Stress Symptoms
Author(s) -
Kiesner Jeff,
Martin Vincent T.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
headache: the journal of head and face pain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.14
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1526-4610
pISSN - 0017-8748
DOI - 10.1111/head.12082
Subject(s) - headaches , menstrual cycle , depression (economics) , anxiety , psychology , medicine , analysis of variance , physical therapy , psychiatry , hormone , economics , macroeconomics
Background Recent research has shown that affective changes associated with the menstrual cycle may follow diverse patterns, including a classic premenstrual syndrome pattern, as well as the mirror opposite pattern, referred to as a mid‐cycle pattern . Objective Test for the presence of a mid‐cycle pattern of headaches, in addition to a menstrual pattern and a noncyclic pattern; test for an association between experiencing a specific pattern of headaches and a specific (previously identified) pattern of depression/anxiety; and test for mean‐level differences, across headache pattern groups, in average headache index and depression/anxiety scores (averaged across 2 menstrual cycles for each participant). Methods A sample of 213 female university students completed daily questionnaires regarding symptoms of headaches and depression/anxiety for 2 menstrual cycles. Hierarchical linear modeling, polynomial multiple regression, analyses of variance, and chi‐square analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Results Confirmed the existence of a mid‐cycle pattern of headaches (16%), in addition to a menstrual pattern (51%), and a noncyclic pattern of headaches (33%). Patterns of headaches and affective change were significantly associated (χ 2 = 21.33, P = .0003; 54% correspondence), as were the average headache index and depression/anxiety scores ( r = .49; P < .0001). No significant mean‐level differences were found between the headache pattern groups on the average headache index scores or depression/anxiety scores. Conclusions A significant number of women experience a mid‐cycle pattern of headaches during the menstrual cycle. Moreover, women often, but not always, demonstrate the same pattern of headaches and depression/anxiety symptoms.