Association between Gastrointestinal Diseases and Migraine

Migraine is a common disease worldwide, and recent studies showed that the incidence of migraine was increased in patients with gastrointestinal (GI) diseases. In addition, preclinical evidence suggested a bidirectional relationship between the GI nervous system and the central nervous system called the gut−brain axis. This study aimed to determine the association between several high-prevalence GI diseases and migraine. Patients diagnosed with migraine or GI diseases were classified as the patient group at least twice a year. We included peptic ulcer disease, dyspepsia, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and gastroesophageal disease as GI diseases. A total of 781,115 patients from the HIRA dataset were included in the study. The prevalence of migraine was about 3.5 times higher in patients with one or more GI diseases after adjusting for age, gender, and insurance type (adjusted odds ratio (ORadj = 3.46, 95% CI: 3.30−3.63, p < 0.001). In addition, the prevalence of migraine was increased as the number of comorbid GI diseases increased. The prevalence of GI disease was also higher in patients with medication for migraine, both preventive and acute treatment, compared to patients with either acute preventive or acute treatment. There was a statistically significant association between the prevalence of GI diseases and migraine, and the higher the number of accompanying GI diseases, the higher the correlation was in patients using both preventive and acute treatment drugs for migraine.