PHILADELPHIA – Reduction in perceived stress was found to trigger migraine within a day after the stress abated, according to a study.
Over the course of 3 months, 17 migraineurs (16 women and 1 man) with a median age of 44 years self-reported daily entries describing their migraine experiences; daily and evening activities; and information about menses (if relevant), sleep, alcohol consumption, medication schedules, etc., using an adapted version of the Perceived Stress Scale to rate their stress levels. A self-reported stress scale, developed for the study, asked participants to rate their overall stress level for each day on a scale of 1 (not at all stressful) to 10 (extremely stressful).
A review of the more than 2,000 data entries over a total of 1,015 eligible diary days indicated that the odds ratio of a migraine attack happening within 6, 12, or 18 hours after stress reduction ranged between 1.5 and 1.9 (all P values less than .05). Overall levels of stress per day were not significantly related to migraine attack.
The industry-sponsored study was conducted by a team from the Montefiore Headache Center in New York, which included Dr. Richard Lipton, codirector of the center and professor and vice chair of neurology at Albert Einstein College of MedicineThe results are published online in Neurology (2014;82:1395-1401).
In an audio interview at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Dr. Lipton discusses the clinical implications of the study, and he offers recommendations for prophylaxis such as mindfulness meditation and other relaxation techniques.
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