Studies show a strong association between migraine and fibromyalgia.
People with migraine are more likely to also have fibromyalgia, and people with fibromyalgia are more likely to also have migraine, compared with how common each condition is on its own in the general population.
Both conditions are also more likely to occur, and co-occur, in women than in men.
“These conditions share overlapping mechanisms that involve how the brain processes pain,” says Daniel Arkfeld, MD, a rheumatologist at Keck School Medicine of USC in Los Angeles. “There is a growing body of research suggesting that both conditions stem from central sensitization — a heightened response of the nervous system to pain signals.”
Does One Cause the Other?
While there’s no definitive evidence that migraine causes fibromyalgia or vice versa, researchers believe that they may share common pathways that increase vulnerability to chronic pain.
“One theory is that repeated migraine attacks might change how the nervous system responds to pain over time, potentially triggering fibromyalgia in people who are already predisposed,” says Dawn Buse, PhD, a clinical professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. “On the flip side, early fibromyalgia symptoms — such as pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders — might activate nerve pathways and contribute to the onset of migraine.”
Further studies are needed to fully understand the bidirectional relationship, but the physiological overlap — especially involving neurotransmitters like serotonin — suggests a shared biological basis.
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