[Mental disorders and migraine: epidemiologic studies]

Epidemiologic studies in the general population, taking into account certain bias inherent to the clinical observation have confirmed the clinical impression reporting a higher psychiatric comorbidity with persons suffering from migraine than in persons without migraine. Persons with migraine are at increased risk for affective and anxiety disorders, personality traits disorders (neuroticism), suicide attempts, but not for alcohol or illicit drug abuse. The comorbidity is more important in migraine with aura than in migraine without aura. Concerning affective disorders, the lifetime prevalence of major depression is 34.4% in persons with migraine and 10.4% in persons without migraine. For bipolar I disorder, prevalence is 6.8% in migraine with aura versus 0.9% when no migraine. Compared to no migraine, the lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders in migraine is significantly increased in: panic disorder (10.9% vs 1.8%); generalized anxiety disorder (10.2% vs 1.9%); obsessive-compulsive disorder (8.6% vs 1.8%); phobic disorder (39.8% vs 20.6%). In addition, no psychopathological, biological or genetic explanation seems to be meaningful for the comprehension of this comorbidity pattern. These results remain primarily descriptive but they justify a clinical investigation of affective and anxiety disorders, and suicide attempts, in all person with migraine, and it also justifies the treatment of pain associated with the treatment of eventual affective or anxiety disorders.