Headaches are a common ailment that many people experience, often disrupting their daily lives and well-being. However, the effects of headaches may go beyond the throbbing pain and diminished quality of life, as new research suggests a troubling link to a significantly higher risk of suicide.
The shocking findings published in the journal JAMA Neurology reveal that the risk of attempted suicide is twice as high among people diagnosed with headaches compared to those without, while the risk of completed suicide is 40% higher.
The findings came after evaluating all types of headaches, including migraine, tension-type headaches, post-traumatic headaches, and trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia among more than 100,000 headache patients in Denmark. The participants were followed up for around 15 years.
“The robust and persistent association with attempted and completed suicide across headache disorders suggests that patients diagnosed with headache may benefit from concurrent behavioral health evaluation and treatment,” the researchers wrote in the study.
Researchers noted that all types of headaches, including tension-type, a common headache disorder that typically presents from mild-to-moderate intensity, have a strong association with suicide. However, the link was particularly strong among those with trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia and post-traumatic headache.
While trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia is a rare headache disorder that causes pain and autonomic symptoms such as tearing, red eye, stuffy or runny nose, and facial sweating on one side of the body, post-traumatic headache refers to the pain in the head after a head injury.
However, the study did not examine the exact mechanisms by which a headache diagnosis could elevate suicide risk. Another limitation is the use of diagnosis codes to identify headache disorders, which may lead to misclassification errors. Additionally, the researchers did not consider how factors such as headache chronicity, severity, and response to treatment could influence the association with attempted or completed suicide.
“The results of this study show that, while rare, attempted and completed suicide occurs more frequently in patients diagnosed with headache than members of the general population without headache. These results underscore the potential importance of screening and early recognition of depressive symptoms and suicidality in patients diagnosed with headache,” said Dr. Holly Elser, lead researcher from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
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