Headache in Children and Adolescents: The Association between Screen Time and Headache within a Clinical Headache Population

Background More than half of children and adolescents have experienced headache within the last 3 months. Several risk factors for headache have been identified, including obesity and lack of sleep. The association between screen time and headache in children and adolescents is sparsely investigated. The aim of this study was to assess this association and evaluate if it varied according to headache diagnosis. Method This cross-sectional study was performed at the tertiary pediatric outpatient clinic for headache at Herlev University Hospital. A total of 139 participants who answered a questionnaire on lifestyle factors and their daily living were included. Diagnoses of migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) were made according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders-3. Children with both migraine and TTH were allocated to a mixed headache group. We differentiated between total, leisure, and school-related screen time. Results The mean age was 13.20 ± 3.38 years and 53.2% were girls. Note that 25.2% were diagnosed with migraine without aura, 23.0% migraine with aura, 28.1% TTH, 15.8% mixed headache, and 7.9% had an unclassified headache diagnosis at the time of inclusion. There was no statistically significant difference in screen time across the five headache groups. An association between screen time and headache frequency was found in children with migraine with aura. Conclusion In this study, we investigated the association between screen time and headache in children and adolescents. More screen time was associated with more frequent headaches in children with migraine with aura. Future prospective studies are needed to determine the causality of this association.

Study of association of migraine susceptibility genes with common migraine in 200,000 exome-sequenced UK Biobank participants

BackgroundA number of genes have been implicated in rare familial syndromes which have migraine as part of their phenotype but these genes have not previously been implicated in the common form of migraine.MethodsAmong exome-sequenced participants in the UK Biobank we identified 7,194 migraine cases with the remaining 193,433 participants classified as controls. We investigated ten genes previously reported to be implicated in conditions with migraine as a prominent part of the phenotype and carried out gene and variant based tests for association.ResultsWe found no evidence for association of these genes or variants with the common form of migraine seen in our subjects. In particular, a frameshift variant in KCNK18, F139Wfs*24, which had been shown to segregate with migraine with aura in a multiply affected pedigree was found in 196 (0.10%) controls as well as in 10 (0.14%) cases (χ2 = 0.96, 1 df, p = 0.33).ConclusionsSince there is no other reported evidence to implicate KCNK18, we conclude that this gene and its product, TRESK, should no longer be regarded as being involved in migraine aetiology. Overall, we do not find that rare, functional variants in genes previously implicated to be involved in familial syndromes including migraine as part of the phenotype make a contribution to the commoner forms of migraine observed in this population.

Characteristics of N400 component elicited in patients who have migraine with aura

Background This study aimed to examine the N400 effect and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited from congruent and incongruent stimuli in patients who have migraines with aura (MwA). Methods A total of 33 MwA patients and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were studied. They were balanced in age (35.12 ± 8.94 vs 34.70 ± 9.59 years, p = 0.872) and sex (69.7 vs 75.0% females, p = 0.761). ERPs were measured in response to both stimuli, where pictures were preceded with an object name that either matched or mismatched with the object. Averaged amplitudes, peaks, peak latencies, difference waves and topography were compared between MwA and HCs. Results MwA patients had significantly lower averaged amplitudes at the Fz and F4 sites during incongruent stimuli, as well as reduced peaks at the C3 and Pz sites. Topography showed a more widespread N400 effect over scalp relative to HCs. The difference ERP waveforms did not differ in the N400 effect between groups, but the P600 effect was significantly stronger in the HCs group relative to the MwA group at the Pz (6.52 ± 2.57 vs. 3.50 ± 3.15, p = 0.001) and P4 (5.86 ± 2.79 vs. 3.95 ± 3.64, p = 0.040) sites. Conclusions Picture-word matching tasks could serve as a potential new method for the investigation of semantic processing in MwA patients.

Prevalence and Factors Associated With Suicidal Ideation in Medical Students With Migraine

Background: The association between migraine and suicide ideation has been identified. However, the predictive factors of suicidal ideation are still controversial and whether migraine with aura can serve as an independent associated factor is uncertain. This manuscript studied the association between migraine with aura and suicidal ideation and explored the predictive factors for suicidal ideation.Methods: We surveyed 9,057 medical students and included 579 medical students with migraine into our study population. All students completed the General Situation Questionnaire, the Verified Headache Questionnaire, Hamilton Anxiety Scale (24 items), Hamilton Depression Scale (24 items), 36-item Health Survey Brief (SF-36), Headache Impact Text-6 (HIT-6), Test Anxiety Scale (TAS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Suicidal ideation was measured by the Self-rating Idea of Suicide Scale (SIOSS).Results: Out of the 579 migraine medical college students, 562 (age 19.6 ± 1.6; 448 women and 114 men) were included in the final study. The positive rate of suicidal ideation was 13.7%. Compared with students suffering from migraine without aura, those having migraine with aura had higher suicidal ideation (p < 0.015). After adjusting for demographic factors and headache characteristics, migraine with aura was found to be independently associated with suicidal ideation. Other independent associated factors include anxiety, depression, test anxiety, sleep, headache, and quality of life. Among these various factors, high quality of life was found to play a protective role against suicidal ideation.Conclusions: Migraine with aura is independently associated with suicidal ideation. Furthermore, anxiety, depression, text anxiety, poor sleep quality, and headache frequency are associated with suicidal ideation among medical college students with migraine.

Atypical Perfusion Manifestation in Migraine with Aura

Migraine with aura may be confused with a stroke. Magnetic resonance imaging is an important tool for the differential diagnosis. Cerebral hypoperfusion has been described in classic migraine, mainly during the aura. A 47-year-old male had an unremarkable past medical history. After sneezing, he developed a left hemi hypoesthesia, bitemporal vision loss, photopsia, and some distortion in the position of letters and words. This lasted <1 h, and it was followed by a severe headache. A magnetic resonance angiography was performed during the headache. It showed a left hemispheric hypoperfusion that did not correlate with the symptoms described by the patient. It is believed that during the aura, cerebral blood flow decreases, leading to hypoxia and decreased cellular energy generation, and these metabolic alterations define the symptoms of the patient. In our case, we documented brain hypoperfusion during the headache in the ipsilateral brain hemisphere to the symptoms, which has no clinical correlation. This condition could be due to spasm in the capillary arteries, and it may persist and influence the clinical manifestations during the headache phase in migraine with aura. A state of generalized cerebral hyperperfusion has been suggested, and there may be a coexistence of both phenomena for some period. This may open a new line of research regarding the pathophysiology and vascular changes of migraine with aura.

Type and severity of migraine determines long-term risk of atrial fibrillation in women: a nationwide population-based study

Background Migraine, especially when accompanied by aura, increases the risk of ischemic stroke and has also shown a close relationship with the occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF). Although the risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases is higher in women with migraine than in men, there is a lack of evidence for gender differences in the risk of AF in migraineurs. Purpose We sought to evaluate the gender-specific risk of AF according to the type and severity of migraine. Methods The study population included all national health checkup examinees (2009) without a history of AF from the Korean National Health Insurance Service data. The diagnosis and type or severity of migraine were determined using claims data, including diagnostic, procedural, and medication prescription codes. Newly developed non-valvular AF was identified during 10 years of follow-up. Gender-difference in the effect of migraine on AF occurrence was evaluated according to the type and severity of migraine. A multivariate Cox regression model was used to adjust for baseline differences between comparison groups, including age, smoking status, drinking habit, regular physical activity, income level, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, body mass index, and glomerular filtration rate as covariates. Results Of a total of 4,020,488 subjects (men, n=2,213,147, women, n=1,807,341) enrolled, 4,986 had migraine with aura (mean age 50.6±14.0, men 29.3%) and 105,029 without aura (mean age 51.6±14.3, men 30.9%). The proportion of migraine with aura among migraine patients was 4% in both gender groups. In the total population, migraine or migraine with aura did not significantly increase the risk of AF. The risk of AF did not increase in a mild degree of migraine, irrespective of gender or the presence of aura. Severe migraine without aura modestly increased the risk of AF in both men and women compared to the control group. (Men, incidence rate [IR] 4.51 per 1,000 person-year, adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12–1.31; Female, IR 3.00 per 1,000 person-year, adjusted HR 1.16, 95% CI 1.09–1.22) The increase of AF risk was the most prominent in women who had severe migraine with aura (IR 3.39 per 1,000 person-year, adjusted HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.18–1.85). In contrast, no significant association was observed between AF and migraine with aura in men. (IR 2.28, adjusted HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.39–1.01; P for interaction 0.011) Conclusions Mild migraine was not associated with an increase in AF risk regardless of gender or the presence of aura. Severe migraine without aura showed a mild increase in AF risk without gender-difference, while severe migraine with aura significantly increased the risk of AF only in women, not in men. Surveillance for incident AF and prompt stroke prevention would be beneficial, particularly for young-aged women suffering from severe migraine with aura. FUNDunding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None. Figure 1