Can Migraine Medication Reduce Depression Symptoms Too? Study Finds
A migraine medication has been found to significantly reduce symptoms of both migraine and depression, marking the first clinical trial to demonstrate improvements in both conditions using a single drug. The findings, published in JAMA Neurology, suggest that fremanezumab, a drug currently available in India, may offer dual therapeutic benefits for patients suffering from these often co-existing disorders.
The study involved 540 patients and was conducted over a 28-week period at 61 centres across 12 countries, including the US, UK, France, and Germany, between July 2020 and August 2022. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a monthly dose of fremanezumab (225 milligrams) or a placebo. The drug was administered subcutaneously—through an injection beneath the skin—at the beginning of the trial, and again at weeks four and eight.
Migraine, a neurological condition marked by recurring headaches, is known to increase the risk of depression by two to four times. Both conditions are thought to share common genetic and biological pathways, including disruptions in brain chemicals like serotonin and glutamine. Traditionally, patients with both migraine and depression are prescribed antidepressants to regulate serotonin levels. However, antidepressants are not consistently effective in managing migraine, and little data exists on how migraine-specific therapies impact patients with psychiatric comorbidities.
“Although treatment with fremanezumab and placebo both resulted in clinically meaningful reductions in depressive symptoms, fremanezumab achieved statistical significance vs placebo at week 8,” the authors wrote. They noted that the improvement in depression symptoms could be an indirect effect of the drug’s efficacy in treating migraine, though more research is needed to clarify the mechanism.
The researchers concluded that fremanezumab “was effective in a difficult-to-treat clinical population with migraine and comorbid major depressive disorders and may also be effective in alleviating psychiatric comorbidities, therefore reducing the cumulative burden on patients.”
The results open new possibilities for integrated treatment approaches, highlighting the potential for migraine-specific therapies to benefit broader aspects of patient health.
Reference: Lipton RB, Ramirez Campos V, Roth-Ben Arie Z, et al. Fremanezumab for the Treatment of Patients With Migraine and Comorbid Major Depressive Disorder: The UNITE Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Neurol. Published online May 05, 2025. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.0806
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