Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Dec 2017)

Migraine in young females with irritable bowel syndrome: still a challenge

  • Georgescu D,
  • Reisz D,
  • Gurban CV,
  • Georgescu LA,
  • Ionita I,
  • Ancusa OE,
  • Lighezan D

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 14
pp. 21 – 28

Abstract

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Doina Georgescu,1 Daniela Reisz,2 Camelia Vidita Gurban,3 Liviu Andrei Georgescu,4 Ioana Ionita,5 Oana Elena Ancusa,1 Daniel Lighezan1 1Department of Internal Medicine, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, 2Department of Neurology, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, 3Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology“Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, 4Department of Urology, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, 5Department of Hematology, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, RomaniaAbstract: Migraine without aura is frequently reported in female patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but knowledge about the relationship between these two conditions is still lacking. This study was aimed to explore the particularities of migraine without aura in young female patients with IBS in order to establish a possible link between them. From a cohort of young female patients hospitalized with IBS in the Internal Medicine Department, 30 joined this pilot study, and they were assigned into two groups on the basis of presence or absence of migraine. In this sample, 15 patients have mild to moderate migraine without aura, with a recently taken normal brain scan, and 15 were without migraine. Diseases and conditions not related to migraine and other possible specific female comorbidities were ruled out. Patients undertook a thorough clinical examination in order to assess fibromyalgia (FM) and chronic pelvic pain (CPP), Questionnaires for migraine disability assessment (MIDAS) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were performed. Laboratory testing of blood, urine, and stool were also performed. Optimized lymphocyte proliferation test for food allergy (FA) and a fecal microbiota (microbiological semiquantitative method) for dysbiosis (DB) assessment were performed. Based on the results, migraine-positive group displayed more severe comorbidities: FM (p=0.0002), FA (p=0.0006), CPP (p=0.026), higher scores of anxiety (GAD, p=0.0008), and more severe DB (p=0.0009). We noticed a strong positive correlation between MIDAS and GAD (r=0.83), a good positive correlation between MIDAS and DB (r=0.56), and a moderate positive correlation between MIDAS, FM, and FA (r=0.46 and 0.41). In conclusion, young female patients with IBS and migraine without aura displayed more severe associated issues – anxiety, intestinal DB, FM, FA, and CPP. The severity of migraine correlated well with anxiety range and DB magnitude and moderately with FM and FA. Keywords: migraine without aura, IBS, young females

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