Our chief objectives were to describe: 1)The familial transmission of migraine by sex and subtype; and

2) The familial co-aggregation of migraine with mood and anxiety disorders.

Sample - participants enrolled in the National Institute of Mental Health's Family Study of Affective Spectrum Disorders, in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area examining the full range of mood disorders and migraine.  Familial aggregation analysis included 353 offspring from 200 families. Migraine diagnoses were derived from ICHD-II based and previously validated headache questionnaires. The association between proband and relative migraine was evaluated using mixed effects logistic regression.

Migraine in parent probands was significantly associated with migraine among offspring (OR = 3.1; 95%CI: 1.7-5.5) and was more prevalent in female offspring (OR = 2.0; CI: 1.2-3.3). There was no significant influence of parental gender on risk of migraine among offspring. Concomitant symptoms of anxiety were prominent among the offspring with migraine. Anxiety and migraine were independently transmitted from parent to offspring.