Headache Medicine, v.3, n.1, p.45, Jan./Feb./Mar. 2012 45

Cognition in women with migraine (abstract)

Cognição em mulheres com migrânea (resumo)

Background:Background:

Background: There is a consensus in clinical practice

that women in menopause transition relate cognitive complaints

mainly from memory. Some studies reported that psychological

symptoms may be associated with cognitive impairment. These

hypotheses have not been proven and controversies in the

literature are presented.This study aimed to compare the

cognitive performance and their associations with affective

variables between groups of women at three stages of

menopause with without aura migraine.

Method:Method:

Method: Participants 85 women divided into five groups:

perimenopause with migraine (n = 16), perimenopausal

without migraine (n = 18), premenopausal women with migraine

(n = 20) premenopausal women without migraine (n = 15)

and late postmenopausal (n = 16, between five and ten years

after last menstruation). In a meeting were applied Depression

Inventory, Anxiety Inventory, Mini-Mental State Examination,

WAIS III (Digits reverse and direct, Search for Symbols, Codes,

Matrix Reasoning), Reproduction and Evocation Figure Rey,

Rey Word List , Semantic Fluency, Stroop test. Comparisons

were performed between groups: 1) pre-menopause and

perimenopause with and without migraine, 2) premenopausal,

perimenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Results:Results:

Results: The first comparison group in premenopausal

women with migraine had a worse performance on tasks

that assessed the Stroop test words (p = 0.04), direct digit

(p = 0.02) and inverse digit (p = 0.01) , abstract visual

reasoning (p = 0.005) and anxiety (p = 0.0006) compared

with the premenopause without migraine. The perimenopausal

groups with and without migraine did not show differences

in cognition, only anxiety (p = 0.04). The perimenopausal

group without migraine got worse scores than the

premenopausal women without migraine in the tests that

assessed attention (p = 0.04), processing speed (p = 0.02),

inhibitory control (p = 0.008) and anxiety (p = 0.04). No

differences were observed between the groups premenopausal

and perimenopausal migraine with migraine. Few and weak

associations were established between the affective and

Vera Lucia Gomes Santiago

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco – UFPE. Pós-graduação de Neuropsiquiatria e Ciências do

Comportamento (área de concentração: Neuropsicopatologia). PhD Thesis. 2012

Orientador: Marcelo Moraes Valença

Santiago VL. Cognition in women with migraine (abstract). Headache Medicine. 2012;3(1):45

Correspondence

era Lera L

era L

ucia Gomes Santiagoucia Gomes Santiago

ucia Gomes Santiago

veragsantiago@gmail.com

cognitive variables in the four groups. In the second

comparison subjects, perimenopausal and postmenopausal

women had worse scores than premenopausal tasks that

assessed processing speed (p = 0.02, p = 0.04) inhibitory

control (p = 0.02) and abstract reasoning (p = 0.02). On a

scale of severity of symptoms of anxiety groups premenopausal

and postmenopausal had lower scores than the perimenopause

(p = 0.03). Associations were evident between anxiety and

depression scores and cognitive tests in postmenopausal

group.

Conclusion:Conclusion:

Conclusion: Premenopausal women with migraine

showed a decrease in attention, memory, abstract reasoning.

Perimenopausal and postmenopausal women showed a

decrease in speed of information processing, attention,

inhibitory control and visual abstract reasoning when compared

with premenopausal women. The presence of migraine caused

an increased intensity of anxiety symptoms. Perimenopause is

the period most susceptible to anxiety.

THESESTHESES

THESES