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No Link Found Between Migraine and Parkinson Disease, Contrary to Previous Findings
A new cohort study involving female participants found no link between migraine and later Parkinson disease (PD) development. Findings from the study were published in Neurology.
Because previous research has reported a link between migraine and PD risk, the study authors aimed to examine the effects of migraine, migraine subtypes, and migraine episode frequency on PD development risk in middle-aged and older women.
“In this large cohort of women, the risk of developing PD was not elevated among those experiencing migraine, irrespective of migraine subtypes or the frequency of migraine,” the authors concluded in the study discussion.
Researchers utilized data from the Women’s Health Study, a US-based cohort of women working in health care professions who were 45 years and older at baseline. Only those who had complete self-reported information on migraine and/or headache and no history of PD were included. Authors then followed up with these participants regarding self-reported physician-diagnosed PD. Analyses were conducted using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of the associations between migraine and PD under study.
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Overall, 39,312 women were included in analyses. Of the group, 7,321 women (18.6%) reported any migraine at baseline: 2,153 (5.5%) reported a history of migraine; 2,057 (5.2%) reported migraine with aura; and 3,111 (7.9%) reported migraine without aura. During follow up, which averaged 22 years, 685 cases of PD diagnosis were reported. Of those cases, 128 (18.7%) were women who also reported any migraine while 557 (81.3%) were women without migraine.
After adjusting for confounding factors, including age, physical activity levels, alcohol and tobacco use, the authors found that women with migraine were no more likely to develop PD than those without (HR 1.07 [0.88-1.29]; 95% CI). This result did not change in relation to history of migraine (HR 1.05 [0.76-1.45]; 95% CI), migraine frequency, or migraine with (HR 1.21 [0.93-1.58]; 95% CI) or without (HR 0.87 [0.59-1.27]; 95% CI) aura.
“Since this study involved only female health professionals who were primarily white people, more research is needed to determine whether the results will apply to other groups, including men, women and other races, ethnicities and gender identities,” said study author Tobias Kurth, MD, ScD.
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