Fibromyalgia Can Exacerbate Depression, Migraine Intensity

Both fibromyalgia and migraine are debilitating pain disorders that have far-reaching impacts on quality of life and can add to the morbidity of the other disorder if both present. Building on prior research drawing a link between migraine and fibromyalgia comorbidity, a new study has found that fibromyalgia exacerbates depressive symptoms, migraine intensity, and migraine-related disability.

The study of 157 patients with comorbid migraine and fibromyalgia and 471 controls with just migraine assessed the difference in pain and depressive symptoms between the 2 cohorts from 2012 to 2017. Participants’ body mass index, number of headache days per month prior to the initial visit, age of onset of headache, number of subjects with 15 or more headache days within the past month, and average duration of migraine were all recorded.

The researchers observed no significant differences in these characteristics between the 2 cohorts. They did note that the majority of the participants had chronic migraine, which is associated with medication overuse and medication overuse was not accounted for in the study.

Click to continue reading on The American Journal of Managed Care.