Introduction: Migraine inflict great pain and suffering on those affected by it, further it has been linked to a higher risk of psychiatric comorbidity and risk of suicide.
Aim: We aimed to assess whether individuals who had received a hospital-diagnosis of migraine or redeemed prescriptions of migraine medication had higher rates of suicide and suicide attempt when compared to individuals with no migraine.
Methods: We utilized a cohort design and national longitudinal data on all individuals aged 15+ years who lived in Denmark between 1980 and 2021. Individuals diagnosed with migraine with or without aura were identified in the National Patient Register. Individuals who redeemed prescriptions on either triptans, ergot alkaloids, and any other migraine drug were identified via the National Prescription Registry, while suicide deaths were identified in the Cause of Death Register.
Results:. The general Danish population were observed over 185,695,235 person-years. During 26,098 males and 12,429 females died by suicide. Amongst these, 176 (0.6%) males and 325 (2.6%) females had a hospital diagnosis of migraine, resulting in adjusted IRR for suicide of 1.1 (95% CI, 0.9 – 1.2) and 1.5 (95% CI, 1.3 – 1.7), respectively, when compared to those not in treatment. In the same period, we observed 52,282 male and 68,054 female suicide attempts. Of these 528 (1.0%) males and 1,568 (2.3%) females had a hospital diagnosis of migraine.
Here, the adjusted IRR for suicide attempt were 1.6-fold (95% CI, 1.5-1.8) and 1.5 (95% CI, 1.5-1.6) for males and females, respectively.
Conclusions: Individuals with migraine experienced significantly higher suicide and suicide attempt rates when compared to those not in treatment. Multiple factors may explain this observation, including that some individuals may develop mental disorders during the course of the disorder.