Washington: Suffering from migraine? There is
possibility that you could have been physically or emotionally
abused during childhood, American scientists have claimed.
Researchers at the American Headache Society`s Women`s
Issues Section Research Consortium found that incidence of
childhood maltreatment, especially emotional abuse and
neglect, are prevalent in migraine patients.
The study published in "Headache: The Journal of Head and
Face Pain", also said that migraineurs reporting childhood
emotional or physical abuse and/or neglect had a significantly
higher number of comorbid pain conditions compared with those
without a history of ill-treatment.
"Our study found that while childhood maltreatment is
associated with depression, the child abuse-adult pain
relationship is not fully mediated by depression," said lead
researcher Dr Gretchen E. Tietjen of the University of Toledo
Medical Center in Ohio.
For their study, Tietjen and his team conducted a
cross-sectional survey of 1348 patients diagnosed with
migraine at 11 health centers.
Childhood maltreatment was assessed using the Childhood
Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) -- a 28-item self-reported
quantitative measure of childhood abuse and neglect.
They found found migraineurs who reported childhood
emotional abuse or physical neglect had a significantly higher
incidence of comorbid pain conditions compared with those
without a history of maltreatment.
PTI