Headaches and migraines linked with psychiatric disorders

Youth Studies Australia, Sept, 2007 by Kate Gross

A Taiwanese study published in the journal Neurology has concluded that young people who experience frequent headaches or migraines are more likely than the rest of their peers to commit suicide or suffer from psychiatric disorders. Almost 8,000 Taiwanese 12-14-year-olds took part in this study. Around half of those identified by a neurologist as having 'chronic daily headaches' (defined as having a headache/migraine on 15 days in a month for more than three months, with episodes lasting for at least two hours) also had one or more psychiatric disorders, 21% were found to have major depression, 20% were identified as a high suicide risk and 19% had panic disorder (Weekend Australian, 5/05/07, p.29).