Association between Long-COVID and Migraine: Insights From a Global Health Network Database

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 7 million lost lives and continues to pose a major global public health challenge. Many COVID survivors experience post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (long-COVID). This condition presents with a wide range of symptoms such as severe fatigue, myalgia, and dyspnea. Despite growing investigation of long- COVID, its underlying pathophysiology remains unclear.

The study explored the relationship between long-COVID and migraines, including both pre-existing and newly developed, using a large global healthcare network (n = 5,187,516). Patients were categorized into long-COVID and short-COVID groups based on diagnostic criteria, and migraine prevalence was analyzed compared between groups.

Patients with pre-existing migraine diagnosis had significantly higher prevalences of long-COVID (9.61%) compared to those without migraines (5.08%). Additionally, the incidence of new-onset migraine occurred more frequently among long-COVID patients (4.21%) than in the short-COVID population (1.13%).

These findings highlight a complex association between long-COVID and migraines, suggesting potential avenues for prevention, screening, and treatment of long- COVID.

This study demonstrates migraine as both a predisposing factor for and a potential manifestation of long-COVID. This connection underscores the importance of recognizing migraines as part of the broader long-COVID spectrum. Improved screening for migraines and strategies aimed at autonomic regulation represent important avenues for management of long- COVID.