Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Headache and Neurogenic Pain
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1445649
This article is part of the Research Topic Headache and other symptoms in special populations View all 18 articles

New insights into the increased risk of migraines from COVID-19 infection and vaccination: A Mendelian randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Jin Yang Jin Yang 1,2Xiaoli Song Xiaoli Song 1,2Lei Shi Lei Shi 1,2Shuhao Du Shuhao Du 1,2Jieying Zhang Jieying Zhang 1,2Gang Huang Gang Huang 3Xuancheng Zhou Xuancheng Zhou 3Hao Chi Hao Chi 3Qian Zhu Qian Zhu 1,2*
  • 1 First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nankai District, China
  • 2 National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, tianjing, China
  • 3 Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Migraine is a neurological disorder prone to recurrent attacks, causing a significant disease burden worldwide. In recent years, an increasing number of observational studies have reported the onset and worsening of migraine following COVID-19 infection and vaccination. However, the limitations of traditional observational study designs make it difficult to control for confounding factors, potentially leading to biased and conflicting conclusions. To avoid the influence of confounding factors, we used Mendelian randomization (MR) for the first time to evaluate the impact of varying degrees of COVID-19 infection and vaccination on migraine. Summary-level genome-wide association study (GWAS) data for exposure and outcomes were obtained from the GWAS catalog and FinnGen database. Inverse variance weighted (IVW) fixed-effect and random-effect models were used as the primary results for MR analysis, with MR-Egger and other methods as references. A series of sensitivity analyses were conducted on the main MR results, including Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger intercept regression, and MR-PRESSO. Ultimately, we found no significant causal association between varying degrees of COVID-19 infection and migraine, but a significant causal association between COVID-19 vaccination and migraine (beta=0.071, P=0.034). The robustness of this result was demonstrated through a series of sensitivity tests. In conclusion, this study provides evidence of the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on migraine, which will help in planning treatment adjustments and optimizing patient care clinically.

    Keywords: COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccination, Migraine, Vaccination, GWAS, Mendelian randomization study

    Received: 07 Jun 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yang, Song, Shi, Du, Zhang, Huang, Zhou, Chi and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Qian Zhu, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nankai District, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.