ABSTRACT
The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of migraine headache among depressed Latino adolescents of Mexican American origin. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study of the prevalence of migraine among depressed adolescents of any ethnic/racial background. In a mental health clinic for the indigent, 132 consecutive Latino adolescents fulfilling the DSM-IV criteria for major depressive episode were compared with a sample of adolescents with other mental disorders. Logistic regression was used to test for associations and control for confounding effects. The prevalence of migraine headache among depressed adolescents was 6 times greater than that of the comparison patients (OR = 5.98, z = 2.35, p = 0.019). This finding is consistent with previously published reports involving adult samples, in which the prevalence of migraine was found to exceed that in the general population. However, contrary to what we previously found in Latino adults, the prevalence of migraine was not higher in bipolar than in unipolar adolescents.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of migraine headache among depressed Latino adults of Mexican American origin meeting the criteria for bipolar disorder (BPD) or major depressive disorder (MDD) relative to patients in a psychiatric comparison group. METHOD: In a mental health clinic for the indigent, consecutively and systematically evaluated acutely depressed Latino adults received structured diagnostic psychiatric interviews based on modules extracted from the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. All were asked as part of routine assessment whether they had headaches "in the last week." Patients with unilateral, pounding, pulsating headache were classified as having migraine headache. The prevalence of migraine headache among the patients with BPD and MDD was contrasted with that of patients in a psychiatric comparison group composed of patients with disorders other than schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Logistic regression was used to test for associations and control for confounding effects. The data were collected between August 2001 and November 2004. RESULTS: Eighty-seven patients had BPD and 123 had MDD. Bipolar patients were 2.9 times more likely to have migraine headaches than patients with MDD (P < .0001). There was a trend for patients with MDD to have a higher prevalence of migraine than patients in the psychiatric comparison group. CONCLUSIONS: Bipolar patients had a high prevalence of migraine headache relative to patients with MDD. This study suggests that migraine is linked to bipolarity.