Background: This study sought to examine the association between early life stressors and adolescent headache and the potential mediating influence of internalizing psychopathology. Methods: This study used data from 2,313 respondents of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, followed prospectively from age 0-1 years at baseline (1994/1995) until age 14-15 years (2008/2009). The relationships between four measures of early life family level stressors, and outcomes of incident health professional diagnosed migraine and self-reported, unclassified frequent headache (>1 per week) were examined using multivariable logistic regression. Mediation analyses of the indirect effect of internalizing psychopathology (i.e., depression and anxiety symptoms) were examined using a regression-based path analytical framework. Results: There were 81 adolescents with incident migraine and 231 with frequent headache. There were no direct associations between early life family level factors and adolescent headache (p > .05). Internalizing psychopathology mediated relationships between family dysfunction (indirect effect [IE] 0.0181, 95% bias-corrected confidence interval [CIBC] 0.0001-0.0570), punitive parenting (IE 0.0241, 95% CIBC 0.0015-0.0633), parental depressive symptomatology (IE 0.0416, 95% CIBC 0.0017-0.0861), and incident migraine, but not frequent headache. Conclusions: Findings provide support for the influence of early life family level factors on prospective risk of developing migraine through internalizing psychopathology.
P.051 Early life stress in adolescent migraine and the mediational influence of internalizing psychopathology in a Canadian cohort
