Women with Migraines At Higher Risk of CVD and Mortality

A large study has found that women diagnosed with migraines, have a slightly increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as heart attacks and strokes, and are somewhat more likely to die from these conditions than women who do not have migraines.

A total of 115,541 women aged between 25-42 years, were assessed for over 20 years, of which 1,329 total CVD events occurred and 223 women died due to CVD. Given the high prevalence of migraine in the general population, migraine should be considered an important risk marker for CVD, but more research is needed to determine the possible causes, and whether treatments to prevent migraines could help to reduce these associated risks.

In a linked editorial, Rebecca Burch from the Harvard Medical School and Melissa Rayhill from The State University of New York at Buffalo cautioned that “the magnitude of the risk should not be over-emphasised” as “it is small at the level of the individual patient, but still important at a population level because migraine is so prevalent.”