TUESDAY, Aug. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Vestibular symptoms, including dizziness and vertigo, are associated with an increased risk of migraine, according to a study published online June 30 in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

Tongxiang Diao, Ph.D., of Peking University in Beijing, and colleagues examined the association between different vestibular symptoms and migraines and non-migraine headaches using a questionnaire to interview nurses at a tertiary hospital. A total of 708 people were classified into three groups: no headache, migraine and non-migraine headache. Among the groups, general physical condition and the incidence of different vestibular symptoms were compared.

Of the individuals, 233 (28.7%) had headaches, including 94 cases of migraine (13.3%); 235 cases had vestibular symptoms. Researchers found that independent factors linked to headaches, especially migraine, included dizziness and vertigo. In the dizziness group, the risks of migraine and other types of headaches were 2.808 and 2.526 times those of the non-dizziness group, respectively, while the risks in the dizziness group were 8.248 and 5.732 times, respectively. group without dizziness.

“Different vestibular symptoms were all closely related to migraine, among which dizziness and vertigo were both significantly related. Compared to patients with vertigo, patients with vertigo were more likely to be accompanied by migraine,” write the authors. “This suggests that when diagnosing vestibular migraine according to current criteria, some patients with non-vertiginous vestibular symptoms might be missed.”