Name: Ember Szaflarski
Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Ember Szaflarski
Ember (’27) is a prospective Psychology and Neuroscience & Behavior double major whose primary area of interest is the effect of traumatic experiences on development and well-being, as well as exploring treatment strategies for patients with post-traumatic disorders. Outside of this project, Ember is a Junior Research Assistant for the Sexuality & Well-Being Lab at Wesleyan, a hobbyist musician, artist, and writer, and occasional player of D&D.
Abstract:
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops after direct or indirect exposure to a traumatic event and results in a myriad of symptoms in the patient that are associated with memories of the event (National Institute of Mental Health, 2024). Both medications, such as fluoxetine (Department of Veterans’ Affairs, 2017), and types of psychotherapy, such as Cognitive Therapy for PTSD (Ehlers et al., 2013), have shown efficacy in treating the disorder. Outside of therapy, it has been found that greater social support is associated with a decrease in PTSD symptoms over time (Robinaugh et al., 2011). However, it is also known that PTSD is highly comorbid with physical chronic pain conditions, such as migraines (Arcaya et al., 2017; El-Galabawy et al., 2018; McGinley et al., 2023). In addition to treatments for PTSD, current research has focused on potential biological links between PTSD and migraine symptoms (Bainomugisa et al., 2021). Considering the already-established correlation between PTSD and migraines, and the effectiveness of medicinal and therapeutic treatment in reducing symptoms, the present study sought to investigate whether receiving different types of treatment for PTSD is associated with reducing migraines in patients. Additionally, the present study examined whether controlling for social support would impact said association. Data were taken from Wave 5 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (AddHealth). Chi-square analysis revealed that when presence of migraines was compared among four treatment categories (Medication Only, Counseling Only, Both Treatments, with Neither Treatment as the control group), no treatment category differed significantly from another. However, multiple logistic regression controlling for social support suggested significantly higher odds of migraines in the counseling group and marginally higher odds of migraines in the group receiving both treatments, so it is possible that greater social support is a protective factor for experiencing migraines in these groups. Overall, the findings proved mostly inconclusive, and therefore further research is required on the relationship between mental health treatments and migraines in PTSD patients.