The amount of iron deposited was positively correlated with the subjects' lifetime duration of migraine.
The increased severity of the migraine attack is not associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke; on the contrary, high frequency of attacks (>12 attacks per year) and a recent onset of migraine (lifetime duration of <1 year before the stroke event) are related to an increased risk [62].
However, it is important to note that the average lifetime duration of affective illness in their depressed sample was 31.8 ±11.2 years, compared to the average lifetime duration of 13.0±11.2 years in our sample.
We also examined the impact of antidepressant treatment on the relationship between lifetime duration of depression and telomere length.
That study utilized an extremely chronically ill population (average cumulative lifetime duration of illness = 31.8±11.2 [SD] years).
Demographic details, onset and lifetime duration of illness, pattern of headache, associated features and family history were recorded.
The median lifetime duration of illness was 4.0±4.5 years and the median current frequency of headaches in these patients was 30±16 episodes per month.
The fact that this difference is significant after controlling for age suggests that greater lifetime duration of depression was not simply a proxy for older age, which is also associated with shorter telomeres.
The questionnaire recorded demographic details, onset and lifetime duration of illness, pattern of headache, associated factors and family history (see Table 1 for a summary and see supporting information for the complete form).
After controlling for lifetime duration of depression, the relationships between the oxidative stress ratio and IL-6 concentrations and telomere length remained significant (F = 4.91, p<0.02, and F = 3.46, p<0.05, respectively).
Patients diagnosed with only migraine had an earlier onset and a longer lifetime duration of illness than patients diagnosed with only tension-type headache (U = 2075.0, p = 0.003, r = −0.19 and U = 2097.5, p = 0.004, r = −0.18; see figure 3).
