COVID-19, vaccination and migraine: Causal association or epiphenomenon?

• Published in: PloS one 2024-08, Vol.19 (8), p.e0308151
• Main Authors: Jiang, Hailun, Zhang, Chao, Meng, Xianggang, Chi, Shihao, Huang, Danqi, Deng, Shizhe, Tian, Guang, Meng, Zhihong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Biology and life sciences; Confounding (Statistics); Corona; COVID-19; COVID-19 - complications; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 vaccines; COVID-19 Vaccines - adverse effects; Disease; Epidemics; Genetic analysis; Genetics; Genomes; Headache; Headaches; Hospitalization; Humans; Immunization; Infections; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mendelian Randomization Analysis; Migraine; Migraine Disorders - etiology; Outliers (statistics); Pandemics; Pleiotropy; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Proteins; Sensitivity analysis; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Vaccination; Vaccination - adverse effects; Viral diseases
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308151

Diverse studies have revealed discrepant evidence concerning the causal association between Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and COVID-19 vaccination in relation to migraines. Investigating the correlation between the former two factors and migraines can facilitate policymakers in the precise formulation of comprehensive post-pandemic interventions while urging the populace to adopt a judicious perspective on COVID-19 vaccination. We undertook a Mendelian randomization (MR) study. The primary assessment of the causal relationship between the three different COVID-19 exposures and migraine was conducted using the standard inverse variance weighted (IVW) approach. In the supplementary analysis, we also employed two methodologies: the weighted median estimator (WME) and the MR-Egger regression. Ultimately, the reliability and stability of the outcomes were assessed via Cochran's Q test, the leave-one-out method, the MR-Egger intercept test, and the MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) test. The results indicate an absence of correlation between genetically predicted COVID-19 (①Very severe respiratory confirmed COVID-19: odds ratio [OR], 1.0000881; 95%CI, 0.999748-1.000428; p = 0.6118; ②Hospitalized COVID-19: OR, 1.000024; 95%CI, 0.9994893-1.000559; p = 0.931;③SARS-CoV-2 infection: OR, 1.000358; 95%CI, 0.999023-1.001695; p = 0.5993) and the risk of migraine. Furthermore, the MR-Egger regression and WME also yielded no evidence of COVID-19 elevating the risk of migraine occurrence. Sensitivity analysis affirmed the robustness and consistency of all outcomes. The results of this study do not offer genetic evidence to substantiate a causal relationship between COVID-19 and migraines. Thus, the deduction drawn from COVID-19 genetic data is that COVID-19 vaccination is unlikely to exert an impact on the occurrence of migraines, though this conclusion warrants further investigation.