#Stress headaches surge during COVID lockdowns, research shows

The logistical headaches of the coronavirus pandemic led to more cases of actual head pounding last spring, new research shows.

Ten states saw reports of stress- and anxiety-related migraines surge by as much as 54 percent above pre-pandemic levels in March as officials imposed strict measures to curb the virus’s spread, according to data from Migraine Buddy.

The uncertainty of living through a global pandemic caused trouble for migraine sufferers who were forced to quickly change their routines, according to Francois Cadiou, CEO of Healint, the health-focused tech firm behind the headache-tracking app.

“Suddenly being in a situation where you don’t know what will happen next has been very, very stressful for many users,” Cadiou told The Post.

“You don’t go to the same places, changing the time you go to bed, having to adjust to the changing relations with your family, with your boss — that’s something that can also contribute a lot.”

The largest spikes occurred in a four-day period less than two weeks after President Trump declared the virus a national emergency on March 13, Migraine Buddy’s figures reveal.

In California — where the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order came down March 19 — reports of stress-related migraines were a whopping 54 percent higher on March 21 than baseline levels seen in December, the data show.

Four other states also saw peaks that day, according to the data: Florida (48 percent above pre-pandemic levels), New York (46 percent), Illinois (23 percent) and Pennsylvania (20 percent).

Ohio, Texas and North Carolina followed on March 22 with surges of 24 percent, 30 percent and 36 percent, respectively, before a 40 percent spike in Michigan two days later, the figures show.

Migraine Buddy also tracked data from Washington state, where stress-related migraine reports only rose as much as 10 percent above pre-pandemic levels on March 20.

Migraine Buddy, which has 2.5 million users worldwide, aggregated the data from users in the selected states who agreed to have their information used for general research. The sample size ranged from 30,000 to more than 100,000 users depending on the state, Cadiou said.