Migraine and Major Depression: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

The study provides the first body of evidence that the previously observed cross-sectional association between migraine and major depression can result from bidirectional influences, with each disorder increasing the risk for first onset of the other. The explanation that major depression in persons with migraine represents a psychologic response to migraine attacks would have been more plausible had we found an influence only from migraine to depression. By diminishing the plausibility of a simple causal explanation for the migraine-depression comorbidity, the findings favor the shared mechanisms explanation.