A survey of more than a thousand female headache sufferers shows that women who suffer from migraine symptoms and severe related symptoms have a 32-fold increase for depression. Women who experienced chronic headaches (15 or more per month) were furthermore four times as likely to report symptoms of major depression than women who experienced only episodic headaches and three times as likely to report related symptoms such as fatigue, nausea and trouble sleeping.
Based on these findings, researchers now wish to explore whether severe headaches, related physical symptoms and depression share common neurology related to serotonin dysfunction.
Read more: Women with migraines more likely to have depression
ABSTRACT: High prevalence of somatic symptoms and depression in women with disabling chronic headache