Abstracts

Rationale: Epilepsy and migraine are among the most prevalent neurological conditions. A comorbidity relationship between epilepsy and migraine has long been recognized. However there are few studies evaluating independent risk factors for migraine in patients with epilepsy. In this study we evaluate independent risk factors for migraine in adult patients with epilepsy. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 190 patients with epilepsy evaluating independent risk factors for migraine in epilepsy. Neurologists experienced in headache evaluated patients with epilepsy for migraine. Clinical characteristics, neurophysiological studies, neuroimaging data, and pharmachological treatments of patients were included in the analysis. Specifically, variable studied were age at epilepsy onset, time of epilepsy, presence of generalized tonic-clonic seizures, type of epilepsy, seizure control, type of pharmachological treatment, familiar history of epilepsy and familiar history of migraine. After univariated analysis, a binary logistic regression model was utilized to evaluate independent risk factors for migraine in epilepsy. Results were expressed in odds ratio (95% confidence interval) and were considered positive if p<0.05. Results: In our cohort, forty percent of patients with epilepsy had migraine as co-morbidity. Univariated analyis showed that patients with epilepsy that were women, those younger, and those with familiar history of migraine or epilepsy were in risk for migraine. However, after logistic regression analysis only being a woman (O.R. = 3.54; 95% CI =1.75-7.14; p<0.001) or having a positive familiar history of migraine (O.R. = 4.50; 95% CI = 1.53-13.26; p = 0.01) remained independent risk factors for migraine in epilepsy. Conclusions: Although several variables have been associated with migraine in patients with epilepsy, few studies have been designed to identify independent risk factors. In our study we observed that being a woman or having a positive familiar history of migraine were independent risk factors for migraine in epilepsy. Our results suggests that gender-related mechanisms and genetic factors are determinant for migraine in epilepsy. This study was supported by CNPq.