Severe headaches tied to suicide attempts: study 嚴重頭痛較易企圖自殺

People with severe headaches, whether migraines or not, may be more likely to attempt suicide, according to a US study of more than a thousand people.

A number of studies over the years have found that people with migraines tend to have a higher suicide rate than those without, but it has not been clear if this is related specifically to the “biology of migraines,” said Naomi Breslau of Michigan State University at East Lansing, who led the study.

The study followed nearly 1,200 Detroit, Michigan-area adults. About 500 of them were migraine sufferers, while 151 had severe headaches that were not migraines. The rest were free of serious headaches and served as a control group. In this study, severe non-migraines were defined as intense headaches lasting more than four hours.

Over two years, the migraine and severe-headache groups had similar rates of attempted suicide. Almost nine percent of migraine sufferers said they had tried to kill themselves, as did 10 percent of those with severe non-migraine headaches, compared with a rate of just over one percent in the control group.

(Reuters)

美國一項針對逾一千人的研究發現，患有嚴重頭痛者，不管是否為偏頭痛，可能較易企圖自殺。

位在東南辛市的密西根州立大學的研究領導者布瑞斯勞表示，歷年來多項研究發現，偏頭痛者自殺率較無偏頭痛者高，但不清楚這是否與「偏頭痛生理因素」有特別相關。

研究追蹤密西根州底特律地區近一千兩百名成年人，其中約五百人為偏頭痛患者，一百五十一人有非偏頭痛的嚴重頭痛，其餘是沒有嚴重頭痛的對照組。在這項研究中，非偏頭痛的嚴重頭痛定義為劇烈頭痛持續逾四小時。

兩年間，偏頭痛與嚴重頭痛組企圖自殺的比率不相上下。有近百分之九的偏頭痛病患表示曾試圖自殺，嚴重頭痛的非偏頭痛病患則有百分之十。對照組想輕生的比率僅逾百分之一。

（路透／翻譯：國際新聞中心）

TODAY’S WORDS 今日單字

1. attempt n.

嘗試 (chang2 shi4)

例: This is my second attempt at the exam.

(這是我第二次嘗試這個考試。)

2. tend v.

傾向 (qing1 xiang4)

例: Women tend to live longer than men.

(女性傾向活得比男性長壽。)

3. relate v.

使相關 (shi3 xiang1 guan1)

例: Researchers are saying poor exam results are related to large class sizes.

(研究人員試著將考試低分的原因與班級人數多有關。)