Introduction: Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a chronic mental illness associated with functional decline, mortality, and significant health care costs; furthermore, specific general medical conditions have been found to occur disproportionately within BD patient populations, among them, migraine is one of the most studied. Migraine has a global prevalence of 10%, and it is a disorder with elevated direct and indirect costs, the later mostly derived from its association with mood and anxiety disorders. Specifically, the reported prevalence of migraine in the BD population ranges from 24.8% to 39.8%, rates that are considerable higher than those found in the general population. / Objective: To explore the prevalence and clinical characteristics of BD patients with and without migraine (Study 1), and to examine the psychiatric comorbidity in patients suffering from migraine (Study 2). / Methods: 323 BD patients were studied, using SADS-L and SCID as diagnostic interviews, and ill-Migraine questionnaire to assess the presence of migraine. Statistical analyses were conducted using parametric analysis and the development of log-linear models. Additionally, 102 migraine patients were interviewed using SADS-L, and the descriptive characteristics of the sample were analyzed. / Results: For Study 1, we found that 24.5% of BD patients suffer from migraine, and it is significantly associated with BD 2, suicidal behaviour, and a variety of anxiety disorders. As well, over 70% of migraine patients showed a lifetime psychiatric diagnosis, mainly within the spheres of mood and anxiety disorders; specifically, the prevalence of BD among migraine patients was 12.7%. / Conclusions: Our study highlights the high prevalence of migraine among BD patients, and the elevated prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity among migraine sufferers. The study of this comorbidity will deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie both disorders and provide a better framework for the developing of molecular techniques to further analyze the molecular physiopathology of Bipolar Disorder.

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Background: The causes of childhood brain tumors (CBT) are essentially unknown. Exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) (3-3000Hz) is an ubiquitous part of modern life. However, very few studies have investigated the possible effect of maternal occupational ELF-MF exposure on CBT and the available findings are inconsistent across studies. / Methods: We examined the role of maternal occupational exposure to ELF-MF shortly before and during pregnancy on the incidence of childhood brain tumors. A total of 548 incident cases and 760 healthy controls recruited between 1980 and 2002 from two Canadian provinces (Quebec and Ontario) were included and their mothers were interviewed. Tumors were classified as astroglial tumors, primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET), and other gliomas. Quantitative occupational ELF-MF exposure in microtesla units was estimated using individual exposure estimations or a job exposure matrix. We used three metrics to analyze exposure: cumulative, average, and maximum level attained. / Results: Using the average exposure metric measured before conception, an increased risk was observed for astroglial tumors (OR=1.5, and 95% CI=1.0-2.4). During the entire pregnancy period, a significantly increased risk was observed for astroglial tumors as well as for all childhood brain tumors with the average metric (OR=1.6, 95% CI=1.1-2.5 and OR=1.5; 95% CI=1.1-2.2, respectively). Based on job titles, a two-fold risk increase was observed for astroglial tumors (OR=2.3, 95% CI=0.8-6.3) and for all childhood brain tumors (OR=2.3, 95% CI=1.0-5.4) among sewing machine operators. / Conclusion: Results are suggestive of a possible association between maternal occupational ELF-MF exposure and certain brain tumors in their offspring. / Keywords: brain tumors, occupational exposures, maternal exposures, magnetic fields, childhood cancer, job exposure matrix

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