Migraine and stress are closely intertwined. It’s nearly impossible to find a news article on migraine that doesn’t mention stress as a trigger. Yet very few acknowledge that migraine itself is stressful—although practically everyone with migraine reports some degree of stress associated with it.

A recently published study found that not only is having migraine stressful, frequent migraine attacks can increase overall stress and lead to more attacks in the future. Researchers also found that no matter how often a person has migraine attacks, the symptoms affect their lives negatively.

Some ways in which migraine is stressful, according to the study:

• 74% of respondents believe that the people in their lives do not believe how severe their migraine attacks are
• 50% said migraines reduced their ability to advance professionally
• 57% were “constantly worried about disappointing people”
• 43% believe migraine negatively affects their relationships, including with their children

The longer a person had experienced migraine attacks, the higher their migraine-related stress was. Also, those who had more migraine symptoms had higher stress. Depression and anxiety, which are comorbid with migraine, also increased the level of stress associated with migraine attacks. No matter how frequent a person’s migraine attacks, participants reported that their migraine symptoms have a negative impact on their lives.

Based on their findings, researchers posit a cyclical relationship between migraine and stress. According to the paper, the stress of migraine can increase a person’s likelihood of other physical and mental health problems. In turn, these health problems increase the frequency of one’s migraine attacks.

The study included 2,735 people, 93% of whom were female. Nearly half (48%) were between the ages of 40 and 54. Three-quarters (76%) of participants had experienced migraine symptoms for more than 10 years. Chronic migraine was the diagnosis for 68% of participants.

Read Part II of "The Stress of Having Migraine"

REFERENCE

Malone, C. D., Bhowmick, A., & Wachholtz, A. B. (2015). Migraine: Treatments, Comorbidities, and Quality of Life, in the USA. Journal of Pain Research, 8, 537.