A new study done by the American Headache Society’s Women’s Issues Section Research Consortium has made suggestions that migraine is in some way linked to childhood abuse.

They found that people who suffer from migraine and had been abused physically or mentally during their childhood had a significantly higher number of comorbid pain conditions in comparison to those who had not been abused.

A total of 1348 headache clinic patients with physician-diagnosed migraine were examined by Gretchen E. Tietjen from the University of Toledo Medical Center and his team to finally come to this conclusion.

About 61 percent participants suffer from a comorbid pain condition and 58 percent said that they have had a history of abuse or trauma.

It has been observed that the number of maltreatment types suffered in childhood had some link with the number of comorbid pain in adulthood.

“Our study found that while childhood maltreatment is associated with depression, the child abuse-adult pain relationship is not fully mediated by depression,” said Dr. Tietjen.

He added that the onset of migraine preceded the onset of the comorbid pain conditions in our population and the strategies for treating such cognitive behavioral therapy may be particular well suited in these cases.