Abstract
BackgroundLittle is known about the prevalence of primary and secondary headache in clinics in Japan. The aim of this study is to characterize patients with headache in an outpatient unit where primary care physicians are working in Japan.MethodsConsecutive outpatients who newly visited the Department of General Medicine, Asahikawa Medical College Hospital, Asahikawa, Japan between April 2005 and March 2009 were analyzed. Each parameter such as age, sex or diagnosis was investigated.ResultsOut of 4693 patients, 418 patients visited to our department because of headache. Primary headache was found in 167 patients (39.9%). The rate of tension-type headache (TTH) (30.8%) was highest, followed by migraine (9.1%). Approximately 3 times higher rate of migraine was observed in female patients when compared with male patients. In female patients, migraine was observed more frequently in younger patients. On the other hands, TTH was observed in almost all aged patients in males and females, and the rate of TTH peaks between the ages of 40 and 49 years in both sex. The present study also demonstrated that 8.4% of patients who chiefly complained of headache had been diagnosed as depression while 1.7% of remained patients had been diagnosed as depression, indicating 5-times higher rate of depression in patients with headache.ConclusionAll these results suggest that primary headache, especially TTH, is highly observed and depression should be considered in patients with headache in an outpatient clinic where primary care physicians are working in Japan.
Highlights
Little is known about the prevalence of primary and secondary headache in clinics in Japan
The prevalence of tension type headache (TTH) in the adults in Europe is much higher than other regions including North America and Asia, and the prevalence of migraine in Asia is lower than Europe and North America
The International Classification of Headache Disorders version 2 (ICDH-II) [7] was applied to each patient who complained of headache
Summary
Little is known about the prevalence of primary and secondary headache in clinics in Japan. Stovner et al have described in the review article that there exists a regional differences in the prevalence of primary headache [2]. The prevalence of tension type headache (TTH) in the adults in Europe is much higher than other regions including North America and Asia, and the prevalence of migraine in Asia is lower than Europe and North America. There are two reports on the prevalence of primary headache such as migraine in general population in Japan [3,4], little is known about the prevalence of primary headache such as migraine and TTH and secondary
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