HEADACHE, PANIC DISORDER AND DEPRESSION - COMORBIDITY OR A SPECTRUM

Past epidemiological and clinical research has identified depression a s the most common psychiatric disorder associated with headache. The p resent study carried out in a neurology headache clinic showed that th e major associations were with current anxiety disorders, especially p anic and related conditions. These findings were particularly true of the subgroup of migraine with aura; in the relatively few patients wit h mood disorders, depression was nearly always comorbid with panic or other anxiety disorders. Past history of depression was mainly a chara cteristic of the tension headache group. These data are compatible wit h the hypothesis that migraine, especially that with aura, panic disor der and some forms of depressive illness are part of the same spectrum .