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WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Apr 27 - Although headaches
are common in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),
they do not differ significantly from headaches that affect people
without SLE, according to a report in the April Journal of Rheumatology.
Dr. Roald Omdal from the University of Tromso, Norway,
and colleagues used a structured clinical interview and a diagnostic
algorithm to classify the headaches of 58 patients with SLE according
to International Headache Society criteria. Two thirds of the patients
reported headaches, including 38% who had migraine and 36% who had
tension-type headache.
A significant percentage of the patients had Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 or Beck Depression Inventory
scores consistent with depressive mood or with vague and nonspecific
physical complaints, the authors report. Both classifications were
significantly more common among SLE patients with headaches.
None of the features of SLE, the researchers note,
showed any relationship to the occurrence of headaches in general
or to any of the headache subtypes.
Unfortunately, the study lacked a control group, "a
fact that limits the conclusions regarding the relative prevalence
of headache in the cohort," the investigators write.
The authors conclude "that migraine is not comorbid
with SLE" and that "the reported high frequency is due to methodological
artifacts related to the peak prevalence of both diseases among
women in middle age."
"This also applies to tension-type headache,"
they add, "which, in contrast to migraine, shows some associations
with emotional and personality traits, and could represent the components
of a chronic pain syndrome."
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