Pain Medicine Today reports a new study showing a clear link between people with migraine headaches and chronic back pain.
Investigators analyzed information from phone and mail surveys of 18,000 people in Germany. There were 9,944 respondents, for a response rate of 55.2%. Respondents with chronic migraine were 15.8 times more likely to have frequent back pain as those without migraine. Moreover, those with both chronic migraine and TTH were 15.2 times more likely to have frequent back pain as those without migraine. The odds also were significantly elevated for less-frequent low back pain.
The study was done at the University of Essen in Germany, but has accounted for a number of variables that help to make the case that culture and other factors are accounted for. In other words, this finding is applicable to North American chronic pain patients as well.
Dr. Katsarava, associate professor of neurology at the University of Essen, Germany, and his team believe the results suggest “that the neurobiology of chronic headache, independent of the primary headache type, involves not only the trigeminal pain pathway but also abnormal general pain processing.”