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Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder and Migraine: Epidemiology, Sex Differences, and Potential Mechanisms
Author(s) -
Peterlin B. Lee,
Nijjar Satnam S.,
Tietjen Gretchen E.
Publication year - 2011
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/j.1526-4610.2011.01907.x
Subject(s) - migraine , epidemiology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , medicine , comorbidity , traumatic stress , psychology
( Headache 2011;51:860‐868) Migraine is a common, often disabling disorder associated with a significant personal and societal burden. The presence of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may increase this disability substantially. Migraine and PTSD are both up to 3 times more common in women than in men. The divergence in prevalence rates of migraine and PTSD that occurs between the sexes after puberty suggests that gonadal hormones play an important role. In addition, the preponderance of PTSD in women may be related to their higher rates of interpersonal trauma, the most common cause of PTSD. However, recent data suggest that although the odds of PTSD are increased in both women and men with episodic migraine, this association is stronger in men than women. In this paper, we examine the epidemiology of PTSD and migraine, with an emphasis on the known sex differences. We then discuss the neurobiological changes associated with PTSD, the current hypotheses for the mechanisms relating PTSD and migraine, and the treatment implications of these findings.