Migraine and Parkinson’s disease not linked in women

A new analysis of data from a large study of women’s health shows no link between a history of migraine and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD).

The study was published on August 21, 2024 in Neurology.

“These results are reassuring for women who have migraine, which itself causes many burdens, that they don’t have to worry about an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease in the future,” said study author Tobias Kurth, MD, ScD, from the Institute of Public Health at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.

As background, the authors said, “We used data from the Women’s Health Study, a United States–based cohort of women in health professions aged 45 years and older at baseline (1992–1995). Only women with complete self-reported information on migraine and headache and no history of PD were included. Participants were followed up for self-reported physician-diagnosed PD through December 31, 2021.”

The investigators analyzed data from 39,312 women.

Among these subjects, 7,321 (18.6%) reported any migraine at baseline. Of these, 2,153 (5.5%) reported a history of migraine, 2,057 (5.2%) reported migraine with aura and 3,111 (7.9%) reported migraine without aura.

During a mean follow-up of 22 years, the researchers identified 685 cases of reported Parkinson’s disease.

Of these cases, 128 (18.7%) were reported by women who also reported any migraine and 557 (81.3%) by women without any migraine.

After adjusting for confounding factors that could affect risk of developing Parkinson’s disease as well as migraine, like age, physical activity, alcohol use and smoking status, the investigators found that the overall risk of developing Parkinson’s disease was not statistically greater for those with migraine than for those without migraine.

This finding was not significantly changed either by the frequency of migraine or by migraine with aura, a visual or other sensory disturbance related to migraine onset.

The authors concluded, “In this large cohort of women, the risk of developing PD was not elevated among those experiencing migraine, irrespective of migraine subtypes or the frequency of migraine. The generalizability of our findings to other populations, such as men, should be further investigated.”