The Painful Legacy of Childhood Violence: Migraine Headaches Among Adult Survivors of Adverse Childhood Experiences

Abstract

Background: Childhood adversities have been associated with adult migraine in the general population. However, most research has focused on only a few types of maltreatment and has not always controlled for factors correlated with early adversities and migraine.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between early adversities and migraine, while controlling for a range of potential explanatory factors.

Methods: We analyzed data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey - Mental Health. Using a representative sample of 10,358 men and 12,638 women, we undertook gender-specific logistic regression analyses to determine the association between number and type of self-reported childhood adversities (physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessing parental domestic violence) and migraine, while controlling for sociodemographics, comorbid adversities, health behaviors, depression, and anxiety.

Results: In total, 6.5% of men and 14.2% of women reported migraines. All three adversities were significantly associated with migraine for both genders, even after controlling for a range of variables. The fully adjusted odds of migraine associated with physical abuse, parental domestic violence, and sexual abuse were 1.61 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.42-1.83), 1.64 (95% CI = 1.39-1.93), and 1.32 (95% CI = 1.11-1.57), respectively, for women, and 1.50 (95% CI = 1.25-1.80), 1.52 (95% CI = 1.16-1.98), and 1.70 (95% CI = 1.22-2.36) for men. Greater number of adversities was also associated with increasing odds of migraine. Men reporting all three adversities had over three times (odds ratio = 3.26; 95% CI = 2.09-5.07) and women over two times (OR = 2.85; 95% CI = 2.25-3.60) the odds of migraine compared with those without childhood adversities.

Conclusions: Number and type of early adversities are associated with migraine among Canadian men and women.

Keywords: Canadian Community Health Survey - Mental Health 2012; child abuse; intimate partner violence; parental domestic violence; physical abuse; sexual abuse.