COVID-19 Infection, Vaccination Have Little Effect on Migraine Worsening

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 4, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- COVID-19 infection and vaccination have a negligible effect on migraine worsening, despite patient reports of migraine worsening, according to a study published online Oct. 4 in the European Journal of Neurology.

Laura Melgarejo, from the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues examined the link between COVID-19 infection and COVID-19 vaccination with migraine worsening and its associated factors. Migraine patients who were followed up in a Spanish Headache Clinic received an online survey, which collected information relating to COVID-19 infection and vaccination. Data were also extracted from participants' electronic diaries (e-diaries), including one-month data before and after reported infection and/or vaccination.

Of 550 participants, 44.9 and 83.3 percent reported having had COVID-19 at least once and had been vaccinated, respectively. The researchers found that 61 and 52 patients reported migraine worsening since COVID-19 and vaccination, respectively. In the two settings (infection and vaccination), increased concern about migraine worsening was a risk factor for perceived migraine worsening (odds ratios, 2.498 and 17.3 for infection and vaccination, respectively). Based on e-diary information, available for 136 of the 550 patients, there was no significant difference noted in the frequency of headache before and after infection or vaccination, including on comparison of those with and without self-reported migraine worsening.

"We believe that clinicians should deliver to patients a more reassuring message that COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines may only marginally affect migraine course and that the impact of the infection and vaccines is probably smaller than that caused by the patient's individual rhythmicity of migraine attacks," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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