Variability in melatonin concentration in blood serum of patients with episodic migraine: a pilot study.

AIM OF STUDY

This study was aimed at assessing the possible effect of melatonin concentration on migraine. The serum concentration profile of melatonin in patients with diagnosed episodic migraine in the interictal period was compared to the profile in patients without migraine. Then, a correlation between the frequency and duration of migraine attacks, and the possible relationship between these parameters and melatonin levels in individual patients, was established.

CLINICAL RATIONALE FOR STUDY

Melatonin secretion is related to migraine pathophysiology in many different ways.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was conducted in a group of 58 subjects (48 women and 10 men). The study group comprised 29 patients (24 women and five men) diagnosed with migraine according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3 beta), within the framework of the Outpatient Clinic at Bielanski Hospital in Warsaw and the Clinical Department of Neurology of the 2nd Faculty of Medicine (now known as the Faculty of Medical Sciences) at the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland. The control group consisted of 29 subjects (24 women and five men) with no headache. Blood samples for the determination of melatonin were collected at midnight, 2am, 3am, 4am and 6am. Melatonin level in a frozen serum of venous blood was determined by a radio-immuno-enzymatic method at the Department of Histology and Embryology of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland.

RESULTS

No statistically significant differences between the levels of melatonin and the averaged advances of melatonin profiles were observed in the examined and the control group. There were demonstrated medium negative correlations between the maximum value of melatonin and the duration of migraine (R = -0.4, p = 0.03). There were also observed statistically significant differences (p = 0.01) between the averaged advances of melatonin profiles, depending on the duration of migraine.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Our study showed no abnormalities of melatonin secretion in patients with migraine during the interictal period. The results of studies available in the literature depend on the nature of the headache (episodic or chronic) and the time of measuring the concentration of melatonin (during a headache attack or in an interictal period).