Weekly periodicity of headache and the effect of changes in weather on headache

The effect of changes in weather on headache was investigated in two separate studies in Uppsala. In a pilot study 60 healthy persons (all medical staff) reported their headache during a period of 2 months. Later 53 patients with migraine and 20 with tension headache registered their headache during 4 weeks. Several climate factors were recorded during the observation periods. Both studies showed a significant weekly periodicity of headache. In patients with migraine the headache frequency was lowest on Sunday-Monday and highest on Thursday and on Saturday. In patients with tension headache the highest frequency was noted on Thursday-Friday and lowest frequency on Sunday-Tuesday. The pilot study showed that personnel off work had significantly more headache when bad weather occurred. There was a tendency for headache the day before windy weather. In the 53 migraine patients there was also a correlation between some climate factors and headache frequency. In this group the deviation from the expected headache frequency (actual headache frequency minus that of observed weekly periodicity) correlated significantly to the air-pressure and air-temperature measured 1-3 days later.