Patterns of functional brain organization and migraine

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the patterns of functional organization of the brain, as evaluated by the number of anomalous brain conditions or phenomena (ABCP), and the prevalence of migraine in a group of 434 women with lifetime major depressive disorder. ABCP are conditions or phenomena which are clearly related to brain function whose prevalence significantly deviates from the statistical mean for the general population. Eighteen ABCP (e.g. mixed or left handedness, enuresis after age 5, learning and speech disorders) were used in this study as 'markers' for their associated patterns of functional brain organization. The relationship between the number of ABCP and the prevalence of migraine was highly significant. The correlation between the number of ABCP and the prevalence of migraine was 0.36 (P < 0.0001, confidence interval 0.26, 0.43). The prevalence of migraine in patients with no ABCP (n = 11) was 9%, while that of those with eight or more ABCP (n = 40) was 85%. This supports the hypothesis that there is a relationship between patterns of functional brain organization and migraine prevalence.