Migraines and dry eyes

Several older reports have suggested an association between dry eye disease (DED) and migraine headaches. Researchers at the Univercity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill just published a large and convincing study confirming this comorbidity.

This was a retrospective study which included 72,969 patients older than 18 years seen over a period of 10 years. The study included 41,764 men and 31,205 women. Of these, 5,352 patients (7.3%) were diagnosed to have migraine headaches and 9,638 (13.2%) had the diagnosis of DED. The odds of having DED and migraine headaches was 1.4 times higher than that of patients without migraine headaches. This association was true for men and women older than 65 and women of all ages. Older age and female sex are both risk factors for the development of DED, probably due to hormonal and age-related changes.

The incidence of migraines and DED in the general population are reversed – about 12% suffer from migraines and 7% from DED, which is probably due to the fact that the study included only patients see at ophthalmology clinics.

The authors conclude that patients with migraine headaches are more likely to have comorbid DED compared with the general population, but this association may not reflect cause and effect. Both conditions do share inflammation as one of the underlying processes.

It is very likely that the eye discomfort from DED can be making migraines more frequent and severe. The diagnosis of DED should be considered in all migraine sufferers, especially in those with difficult to control attacks because effective treatment of DED could lead to an improvement in migraines.