Physicians have suspected, for years, the connection between mental health and headache or migraine. Now research is beginning to show that people who suffer from various mental illnesses have migraine headaches as well. People with depression have a hard time dealing with the depression and headache. It is a matter of which came first, the depression or was it the migraine. Whatever your situation may be, know this: mental illness can affect the way you feel pain, especially migraine headache pain.
Now that is not to say that every person who suffers from migraine headaches have a mental illness. There are many people who are mentally sound but that have an inherited tendency for migraine headache in their family history.
Mental Disorders with Migraine
There are basically three mental disorders that also state migraine as one of their symptoms. Depression, bi-polar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder indicate migraine as an effect of the condition.
v Depression: Many people with depression report symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, and headaches, including migraine. It is thought that most depressed people suffer from tension headaches, but migraine has played a role also. For those with depression, usually a physician will prescribe a medication or treatment that will attack the depression and, subsequently, the headache.
v Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Doctors have found that migraine patients who also have PTSD have a higher degree of disability than those without PTSD. Furthermore, for patients with migraine and PTSD, a higher degree of disability occurs in those who have chronic daily headaches than in those who experience episodic type migraines. Since there is a prevalence of PTSD associated with headache, awareness needs to be heightened in this area to better treat both conditions.
v Bi-polar Disorder: This condition is consists of periods of depression and mania. Studies have shown that people affected with this disorder usually have headaches, especially migraines. The typical treatments for migraine are effective with those with bipolar disorder.
As always, special care must be taken when dealing with individuals displaying a mental disorder and migraine headache because of drug interactions. Certain drugs cannot be taken together without causing detrimental side effects. The health physician would be the best guide in picking the right medicine for you.
Sometimes it is difficult to determine the causes for headaches. If you have a mental disorder, knowing that condition beforehand will help your health care practitioner to better treat you. He or she can observe your headache symptoms and establish a treatment routine that will be effective. In addition, it is good to know that you are not alone in your struggle and that there are people who will do all they can to see that you get the pain relief and help needed.
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