Alicia Gonzalez-Martinez (Madrid/ ES), Inés Muro García (Madrid/ ES), Sonia Quintas (Madrid/ ES), María Chaparro (Madrid/ ES), Javier P Gisbert (Madrid/ ES), Ancor Sanz (Madrid/ ES), María José Casanova (Madrid/ ES), Cristina Rubín de Célix (Madrid/ ES), José Vivancos (Madrid/ ES), Ana Beatriz Gago-Veiga (Madrid/ ES)
Abstract text (incl. figure legends and references)
Objective: The gut-brain axis describes a complex bidirectional association between neurological and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. In patients with migraine, GI comorbidities are common. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of migraine according to Migraine Screening Questionnaire (MS-Q) among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and describe the headache characteristics compared to a control group. Additionally, we explored the relationship between migraine and IBD activity.
Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study through an online survey including patients with IBD from the IBD Unit at our tertiary hospital. Clinical and demographic variables were collected. MS-Q was used for migraine prevalence evaluation. Scale scores from HIT-6, HADS, ISI, Harvey-Bradshaw and Mayo were also included.
Results: We evaluated 66 patients with IBD and 47 controls. Among patients with IBD, 28/66 (42%) were women, mean age 42 years and 23/66 (64%) had ulcerative colitis and 43/66 (65.15%) Crohn"s disease. MS-Q was positive in 13/66 (23%) of IBD patients and 4 (13%) controls. Among patients with IBD, headache was unilateral in 5/13 (38%) and throbbing in 10/13 (77%). We found that a female sex (p= 0.006), weight (p=0.002), height (p=0.003) and anti-TNF use (0.0035) were associated with MS-Q positive diagnosis. We did not find any association between HIT-6 and IBD activity scales scores.
Conclusions: Migraine prevalence according to MS-Q is higher in patients with IBD than in the control group, which might be explained by the relationship between these entities through the gut-brain axis. Some sociodemographic characteristics of patients with IBD could predict the presence of migraine. These results highlight the importance of migraine detection among patients with IBD which could improve management of this condition and the quality of life of these patients.