Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Morning Headaches The literature has suggested that chronic morning headaches (CMH) result from a sleep-related breathing disorder such as sleep apnea. A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine concludes that chronic morning headaches are a good indicator of major depressive disorders and insomnia disorders. Morning headaches affect 1 out of 13 people in the general population. Maurice M. Ohayon, MD,DSc,PhD from the Stanford Sleep Research Center surveyed 18,980 individuals 15 years or older from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. They were questioned about morning headaches and any history of sleep disorders or mental disorders. The prevalence of CMH was found to be 7.6%. The percentage of individuals who reported "daily" headaches was 1.3% of the sample. Rates of CMH were higher in women (8.4% vs 6.7% in men) and in subjects between 45 and 64 years (9%). The median duration for CMH was 42 months. What is most interesting are the conditions or disorders that were positively associated with CMH with comorbid anxiety and depression being the highest (21.3%). Others included: major depression (21.3%), dyssomnia not otherwise specified (17.1%), insomnia disorder (14.4%),  circadian rhythm disorder (20.0%), sleep-related breathing disorder (15.2%), hypertension (11.0%), musculoskeletal diseases (14.1%), use of anxiolytic medication (20.1%), and heavy alcohol consumption (12.6%). The researchers concluded that chronic morning headaches are a good indicator of major depressive disorders and insomnia disorders and contrary to what was previously suggested, they are not specific to sleep-related breathing disorder. A review of sleep disorders from Medscape Some other studies by Dr. Ohayon: Ohayon MM. The effects of breathing-related sleep disorders on mood disturbances in the general population. J Clin Psychiatry. 2003 Oct;64(10):1195-200 Ohayon MM. Epidemiology of insomnia: what we know and what we still need to learn. Sleep Med Rev. 2002 Apr;6(2):97-111 Ohayon MM, Schatzberg AF.Using chronic pain to predict depressive morbidity in the general population. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003 Jan;60(1):39-47 Ohayon MM, Roth T. Place of chronic insomnia in the course of depressive and anxiety disorders. J Psychiatr Res. 2003 Jan-Feb;37(1):9-15. 12:26:07 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 rsk. Last update: 2/18/04; 11:55:55 PM.