Association of Iron Deficiency Anemia with Migraine: A Case-Control Study

Migraine headache is a common primary headache disorder which is multifactorial in origin. On the other hand, iron deficiency anemia causes metabolic abnormalities in the brain which leads to a reduction in neuronal activities. The study was designed to determine the association between iron deficiency anemia and migraine. This was a case-control study which was conducted among patients attending at the outpatient department of Neurology of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital with migraine headache fulfilling the International Headache Society criteria and non-Migraine age and sex matched healthy individuals from November 2019 to April 2021. Total 155 migraine patients (case) and 155 non-migraine healthy individuals (control) were included in this study. After signing the informed written consent, the blood samples were collected for complete blood count and serum ferritin level. The study result showed that iron deficiency anemia was more common in migraine patients than non-migraine healthy individuals (p<0.001). In female patients, serum hemoglobin and ferritin level were significantly low in migraine (p<0.001 and p<0.001 respectably) but in male patients only serum ferritin level was significantly low (p=0.001). There is also an association between severity of migraine attack and iron deficiency anemia (p=0.042). The patients with severe headache had lower serum hemoglobin and ferritin level which were statistically significant (p=0.005 and p<0.01 respectably). The study observed an association between iron-deficiency anemia, serum hemoglobin and ferritin levels with migraine. Therefore, iron deficiency anemia may be investigated in migraine patients and iron supplements might be an effective treatment in patients with migraine.