title: Psychiatric comorbidities and photophobia in patients with migraine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Based on recent findings and our own impressions we took a closer look at the relationship between (inter)ictal photophobia and psychometric variables in migraine patients with photophobia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For this study we included 29 (27 female) migraine patients and 31 (18 female) controls with a mean age of 31.6 ± 12.5 years and 24.0 ± 4.1 years, respectively. All participants filled out the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Interictal photophobia in patients was significantly higher than photophobia in controls (p = .001). Patients showed statistically significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms (p < .001), anxiety symptoms (p < .001) and stress (p < .001) than controls. Among all participants, (interictal) photophobia correlated positively with age (rho = .318, p = .013) as well as with the levels of depressive symptoms (rho = .459, p < .001), anxiety symptoms (rho = .346, p = .008) and stress (rho = .368, p = .005), but not with gender. In the patients, ictal photophobia correlated positively with age (rho = .473, p = .01) and interictal photophobia (rho = .423, p = .022). Linear regression analysis revealed only a trend towards statistical significance for (interictal) photophobia as a predictor for the level of depressive symptoms (rho = .457, p = 0.056) in the whole sample.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Considering higher levels of photophobia in depression and the comorbidity of migraine and depression, it might be possible that depression contributes to interictal photophobia in patients with migraine. The same may be true for anxiety and stress. Both are also related to migraine and their possible impact on photophobia in migraine may be explained by pupillary dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090, Vienna, Austria. Stefan.seidel@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2583-5835
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Seidel
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beisteiner
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Maike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manecke
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Tuna Stefan
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Aslan
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wöber
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D020795:Photophobia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Migraine; Photophobia; Stress