Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40313279›Full record

ArticlemedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences2025

Evaluating Migraine Trigger Surprisal: Associations with Migraine Activity.

Dana P Turner, Twinkle Patel, Emily Caplis, Timothy T Houle

Abstract readPreprint
In one paragraph

Article in medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Dana P TurnerDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, USA.
Twinkle PatelDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, USA.
Emily CaplisDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, USA.
Timothy T HouleDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, USA.

Funding

Measuring Migraine Attack RisksR01NS113823 · NINDS · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · PI TURNER, DANA · 2019 to 2023
$1.5M
NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS113823
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Identifying migraine triggers is a common goal for most individuals with migraine but remains challenging due to the vast number of possible trigger candidates and their fluctuating nature. The Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between surprisal and future headache attacks. Methods: In this prospective daily diary study, N = 109 individuals with migraine were enrolled, with N = 104 completing twice-daily electronic entries for up to 28 days, yielding 5,176 total diaries. Diary items captured exposure to potential migraine triggers across behavioral, emotional, and environmental domains. For each entry, total surprisal scores were calculated using within-person empirical probability distributions to reflect how atypical each day's experiences were. Results: Participants experienced a headache on 1,518/5,145 (29.5%) of days with complete diary information. Higher surprisal significantly predicted increased migraine risk within 12 hours (OR = 1.86 [95%CI: 1.12-3.08], p = 0.016) and 24 hours (OR = 2.15 [95%CI: 1.44-3.20], p < 0.001), with stronger effects observed at the longer interval. Notably, the association between current surprisal and migraine onset was moderated by recent surprisal history and exhibited nonlinear properties at 12 hours. Random effects revealed substantial between-person variability in surprisal sensitivity, and individuals with higher baseline headache risk showed attenuated associations. Conclusions: Surprisal offers a novel, individualized measure of trigger unpredictability that is associated with short-term migraine risk. Incorporating surprisal into digital tools may improve personalized prediction and prevention strategies, moving beyond static trigger lists to a dynamic, context-aware model of migraine self-management.

Identifiers

PMID40313279
PMCPMC12045437

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.