Women’s Health
Beyond Diagnosis: Migraine and Depressive Symptoms in Young Women in the Growing Up Today Study Holly Crowe* Holly Crowe Crowe Crowe Crowe Crowe Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Half of people with migraine or depression are diagnosed before age 18. Adolescence and young adulthood are characterized by neurodevelopmental changes and increased risk of declining mental health, especially among young people with chronic health conditions. However, the link between adolescent-onset migraine and depression is understudied, and research tends to focus on diagnosed depression and migraine, which likely underestimates the true burden. To quantify the association between migraine and depression in young adults, we used data from 15,031 female participants in the ongoing Growing Up Today Study (age 9-17 at enrollment). We used self-reported physician diagnoses, as well as ICHD-3 criteria to categorize headache symptoms as migraine (yes/no) and a CESD-10 ≥10 cutoff to categorize mild depression symptoms during multiple time points from 2007-2016 (ages 11-29). We found that 28% of young adults reported experiencing migraine symptoms (21%) or diagnosis (19%)and 43% reported ever experiencing probable depression (CESD≥10; 33%) or a diagnosis of depression (23%). We used multivariable logistic regression to quantify the association between migraine and depression, adjusting for age at enrollment and menarche, race and ethnicity, diet score, physical activity, and history of trauma and abuse. We found a strong cross-sectional association between any migraine and depression (OR= 3.30, 95 CI: 2.99-3.64). The estimates for migraine and depression symptoms, regardless of diagnoses, were 1.80 (95% CI: 1.51-.2.15). These results indicate that migraine and depression symptoms commonly co-occur in young people, whether subthreshold or diagnosed. Young adulthood is a critical period for mental health screening, particularly among individuals with migraine, who are especially vulnerable.