Abstract
Aims:: Alcohol hangover is a poorly understood cluster of symptoms occurring following a heavy consumption of alcohol. The term delayed alcohol-induced headache is often used synonymously. Our objective was to compare alcohol hangover symptoms in migraine sufferers and nonsufferers. Materials and Methods:: In this cross-sectional study, university students were asked to fill structured questionnaires assessing headache history, alcoholic consumption, and hangover symptoms (using the Hangover Symptom Scale (HSS)). Subjects were classified as suffering from migraine with or without aura and nonsufferers according the International Classification of Headache Disorders 2nd Edition (ICHD-II). The 13 hangover symptoms were divided by the researches into migraine-like and other nonmigraine-like symptoms. Results:: Hangover symptoms among 95 migraine sufferers and 597 nonsufferers were compared. Migraine sufferers consumed less alcohol compared with the nonsufferers (mean drinks/week 2.34 4.11 vs. 2.92 3.58, P = 0.038) and suffered from higher tendency to migraine-like symptoms after drinking (mean 2.91 3.43 vs. 1.85 2.35, P = 0.002) but not to other hangover symptoms (mean 5.39 6.31 vs. 4.34 4.56, P = 0.1). Conclusions:: Migraine sufferers consume less alcohol, especially beer and liquors, and are more vulnerable to migraine-like hangover symptoms than nonsufferers. The finding that the tendency to develop migraine attacks affects the hangover symptomatology may suggest a similarity in pathophysiology, and possibly in treatment options.
Copyright
Association for Helping Neurosurgical Sick People. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Derivative-Non Commercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit.
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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License, which permits unrestricted reproduction and distribution, for non-commercial purposes only; and use and reproduction, but not distribution, of adapted material for non-commercial purposes only, provided the original work is properly cited.
