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. 2009 Apr 8;10(3):187–197. doi: 10.1007/s10194-009-0105-7

Psychiatric disorders and headache familial recurrence: a study on 200 children and their parents

Federica Galli 1,✉, Loredana Canzano 1, Teresa Gloria Scalisi 2, Vincenzo Guidetti 1
PMCID: PMC3451992  PMID: 19352592

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to examine the relationship between headache and familial recurrence of psychiatric disorders in parents and their children. Headache history and symptomatology have been collected in a clinical sample of 200 patients and their families, using a semi-structured interview (ICHD-II criteria). Psychiatric comorbidity was assessed by DSM-IV criteria. Chi squares and a loglinear analysis were computed in order to evaluate the main effects and interactions between the following factors: frequency and headache subtypes (migraine/not-migraine) in children, headache (migraine/not-migraine-absent/present) in parents, headache (absent/present) in grandparents, and psychiatric comorbidity (absent/present) have been analyzed: 94 mothers (47%) and 51 fathers (25.5%) had at least one psychiatric disorder, mainly mood and anxiety disorders. Considering the significant prevalence of Psi-co in children (P < 0.0001), we compared it with the presence of familiarity to headache: a significant interaction has been found (P < 0.05) showing that migraineurs with high familial recurrence of headache had a higher percentage (74.65%) of psychiatric disorders, than no-migraineurs (52.17%). Absence of headache familial loading seems to be related to psi-co only in no-migraine headache (87.5 vs. 45.5%). The occurrence of psychiatric disorders is high in children with headache, but a very different pattern seems to characterize migraine (familial co-transmission of migraine and Psi-Co?) if compared with non-migraine headache.

Keywords: Headache, Child, Family, Genetic, Psychiatric disorders, Anxiety and depression

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Acknowledgments

Conflict of interest

None.

Contributor Information

Federica Galli, Phone: +39-06-44712255, Email: federica.g@uniroma1.it.

Vincenzo Guidetti, Email: vincenzo.guidetti@uniroma1.it.

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