To test whether a digital mental health intervention (DMHI) improves mental health and migraine-related outcomes among adults with self-reported migraines.

This study included new users self-reporting migraines when registering for a publicly available DMHI (Happify) between 10/27/2020 and 1/14/2021. Every two weeks, users were prompted to complete a mental health assessment, including a proprietary measure of subjective well-being and the 2-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale. Starting on Day 3 and every two weeks thereafter, users were also prompted to complete a 7-item migraine assessment measuring stress, fatigue, sleep quality, migraine frequency, migraine severity, interference in daily activities, and migraine-related helplessness. We examined changes in outcomes between participants’ first and last assessment, controlling for time between assessments, using the subset of users who completed at least two mental health (n=694) or two migraine (n=652) assessments.

We found significant improvements in well-being (p=.001), anxiety (p=.002), and the degree to which migraines interfered with daily activities (p=.009). These improvements were significantly higher among participants who completed the recommended number of activities (16) (ps≤.002). There were no other significant main effects. However, participants with higher than average improvements in stress reported significant decreases in migraine frequency (p<.001).

These data provide preliminary evidence for the benefits of a general DMHI for mental health and migraine-related outcomes among adults with self-reported migraines. Digital biobehavioral approaches may provide cost-effective and scalable means of adjunctive support for migraine patients.