ABSTRACT
A relationship between epilepsy and migraine has long been postulated, but the nature of this interaction is still debated. We used epidemiological approach to investigate the comorbidity between both disorders through studying 200 epileptic patients and 200 of the first-degree relatives of them as a control group. The mean age [ +/- SD] for the patients was 28.84 +/- 7.95 and that of the relatives was 43.9 +/- 14.1. We found 33 migraine patients among the epileptic patients and 21 migraine patients among the relatives [prevalence rates were 16.5%, 10.5% respectively]. The mean age for the epileptics with migraine was 25.3 +/- 7.95 and that for relatives with migraine was 45.41 +/- 13.61. Migraine with aura formed 18% and 14.3% of the epileptic migraineurs and relatives with migraine respectively. Abnormal EEGs formed 63.6% in epileptic patients with migraine and 28.6% in relatives with migraine. Cumulative incidences of migraine [ +/- SE] by age 40 years were17.9 +/- 1.1 in the patients with migraine and 11.3 +/- 5.7 in relatives with migraine. We used Cox proportional hazards analysis to compute some epilepsy-related variables in relation to migraine. Migraine risk was higher in epileptic patients with history of head trauma than idiopathic epileptics; partial seizures had higher risk than generalized [RR = 1.18]; positive family history than negative [RR = 2.79]; onset before 10 years than after 20 years [RR = 2.5]