Migraine and its relation with eating attitudes: A cross-sectional study

Background: Data on the eating attitudes in patients with migraine are limited. We aimed to investigate the eating attitude, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and sleep quality in patients with migraine, and assess their relationships with attack frequency, attack severity, and migraine-related disability. Methods: 71 patients with migraine and 57 controls were included in this cross-sectional prospective study. Migraineurs were evaluated according to attack frequency (number of attacks per month), attack severity [average visual analog scale (VAS)], and migraine-related disability [Migraine Disability Assessment Scale (MIDAS)]. All patients and controls were given the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results: EAT-40, BAI, BDI, and PSQI scores were significantly higher in patients with migraine than in control group (P < 0.05), whereas FSS scores were similar between the groups (P > 0.05). In patients with migraine, male migraineurs had significantly higher attack frequency when compared to women (P = 0.012). However, MIDAS scores were higher in female migraineurs than in men (P = 0.046). VAS scores were similar according to gender (P = 0.382). In the correlation analysis, VAS was positively correlated with EAT-40 (r = 0.240, P = 0.044) and BAI (r = 0.250, P = 0.036). In the multivariate analysis, BAI score was found to affect the EAT-40 score in the whole population [odds ratio (OR) = 1.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.03-1.13, P = 0.001]. Conclusion: Psychiatric comorbidities and poor sleep are common in migraine sufferers, which also contribute to the development of disordered eating attitude in these patients. The close link between anxiety, headache, and eating attitude warrants further research.