Is Child Abuse the Root Cause of Migraine Headaches?
Clinicians asking patients about a history of adverse childhood experiences would not improve the management of migraine headaches.
December 1, 2023 update
The “urgent” need to assess adverse childhood experiences in understanding and treating headaches is back in the news.
A recent article appeared in Neurology, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Primary Headache Disorders, and press releases are spreading across social media. Catherine Kreatsoulas, Ph.D. and colleagues conclude:
Health care providers, such as neurologists and primary care physicians who treat primary headaches in adults, should routinely screen for ACEs, educate patients on the connection between ACEs and health, and provide referrals for treatment strategies tailored to the respective ACE.
However, the broad topic of primary headaches includes the more focused topic of migraines, a complex debilitating neurological condition, the symptoms of which involve much more than headaches and that has much more specific life management and treatment recommendations.
I wrote about migraines in an earlier Mind the Brain article, exposing numerous proble…