Study finds no link between migraine and Parkinson’s disease

Contrary to earlier analysis, a brand new research of feminine individuals finds no hyperlink between migraine and the chance of growing Parkinson’s illness. The research is revealed within the August 21, 2024 on-line difficulty of Neurology.

“These outcomes are reassuring for ladies who’ve migraine, which itself causes many burdens, that they do not have to fret about an elevated threat of Parkinson’s illness sooner or later,” mentioned research writer Tobias Kurth, MD, ScD, from the Institute of Public Health at Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany.

The research concerned 39,312 feminine individuals with a mean age of 55 at first of the research. A complete of seven,321 of the individuals reported present or previous migraine at first of the research. The individuals had been then adopted for a mean of twenty-two years. During that point, 685 individuals reported physician-diagnosed Parkinson’s illness. Of these, 128 had been individuals who reported a historical past of migraine or lively migraine, and 557 had been individuals with no migraine.

After adjusting for different components that might have an effect on the chance of growing Parkinson’s illness in addition to migraine, reminiscent of age, bodily exercise, alcohol use and smoking standing, researchers discovered that individuals with migraine had been no extra more likely to develop Parkinson’s illness than those that didn’t have migraine.

This consequence didn’t change primarily based on how regularly individuals had a migraine or whether or not they skilled an aura earlier than the migraine. An aura is a visible or different sensory disturbance that happens earlier than the migraine begins, reminiscent of seeing vibrant lights.

“Since this research concerned solely feminine well being professionals who had been primarily white individuals, extra analysis is required to find out whether or not the outcomes will apply to different teams, together with males, girls and different races, ethnicities and gender identities,” Kurth mentioned.

Another limitation of the research is that individuals self-reported info on migraine and Parkinson’s illness, so it’s attainable that some info was not correct. In addition, since Parkinson’s illness is usually not recognized till signs are superior, it is attainable that some individuals could have developed Parkinson’s illness after the tip of the research.