Gretchen Tietjen
For those who have never had a migraine, it can be difficult to explain just how debilitating they can be. Gretchen Tietjen has uncovered groundbreaking connections between migraine and stroke, as well as between childhood abuse and posttraumatic stress and migraine. She is the director of The University of Toledo Medical Center Stroke Program, established in 1994, which was the area’s first such center that now treats an average of 300 stroke patients each year.
"We found that even when we adjusted for depression and anxiety, there was still a 33% higher chance that those who had been emotionally abused would go on to have migraine rather than just sort of regular tension-type headaches."
Childhood Emotional Abuse Linked to Adult MigraineMedscape
December 2014
"It is clear from this work that early adverse experiences influence a migraine sufferers' cardiovascular health in adulthood. Other work has shown a link between childhood maltreatment and migraine and now we know that early abuse puts these adults at a greater risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.”