Describe prevalence and comorbidities of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and migraine in a patient cohort.

Very few studies assessing GI disorders in patients with migraine have been performed in which the gut-brain axis would play an important role. The purpose of our study is to search for the relationship between migraine and GI disorders and impact on anxiety and insomnia.

The Leaf research database was used to obtain retrospective data for all patients with ICD-10 code diagnosis for migraine and GI disorders including constipation, irritable bowel syndrome IBS, cyclic vomiting syndrome, gastroparesis, functional dyspepsia, celiac disease and ulcerative colitis. Sub-analysis for anxiety and insomnia was performed.

We identified 69,344 (males: 17,015; females: 52,329) with migraine and 153,717 (males: 64,264; females: 89,453) with a GI disorder.

13,744 (males: 2,776; females: 10,880) were diagnosed with both GI disorders and migraines representing 19.8% of those with migraines and 8.9% of those with GI disorder.

Anxiety was diagnosis in 55 % of patients with both migraine and GI disorders, 33 %  with migraine and  27.7 %  with GI disorders.  Insomnia was diagnosis in 33 % with both migraine and GI disorders, 18.2 % with migraine and 16.7 % with GI disorders.

Sub-analysis showed 21,898 (male: 28.0 % and females: 72.0%) were diagnosed with IBS. 17.7 % diagnosed with IBS had migraine.

Anxiety was diagnosed in 43.0 % with IBS, 32.2 % with migraine and 62.5% with both diagnosis IBS with migraine.

Insomnia was diagnosed in 21.4 % with IBS, 18.2 % with migraine and 36.1 %  with both diagnosis IBS with migraine.

Migraine  co-occurs with gastrointestinal disorders. In our study, 19.8% of people with migraine and 8.9% of people with Gl disorders were diagnosed with both conditions. Having both conditions predicts an increase in comorbidities such as anxiety and insomnia.