Effect of the Psychiatric Co-Morbidities of Migraine in Medical University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Migraine is a common neurological disorder with significant psychiatric co-morbidities and impact on quality of life. Medical students routinely have triggers, notably stress and irregular sleep, which are typically associated with migraine. The present study aimed to assess the effect of the psychiatric co-morbidities of migraine on medical university students. METHODS: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study at Khartoum University on 356 students chosen by a multi-stage stratified sampling for the batch and gender, followed by a simple random sampling using self-administered questionnaires. Our survey consisted of the Patient Health Questionnaire 4-item (PHQ-4) to examine the effect of the psychiatric co-morbidities of migraine on medical students at Khartoum University. Migraine diagnosis was made according to ID Migraine. We analyzed the data using SPSS Software version 26. RESULTS: The participants included 63.8% females and 36.2% males. The age of the participants ranged from 17–26-year-old, with the majority between 20-23 years old. Additionally, 73.6% of the students were caffeine consumers, and 6.5% were smokers. In addition, 66% of medical students confirmed having two or more general headaches during the past three months. The prevalence of migraine was 27.25% in the whole study group. According to the PHQ-4 scoring system, (36%) had mild psychological distress (score: 3-5), (28.9%) reported severe distress (score: 9-12), while (24.7%) and (10.3%) reported moderate (score: 6-8) and none (score: 0-2) psychological distress, respectively. There was a significant association between the intensity of migraine without medications and the psychological status of the patient (P <0.05). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the effect of the psychiatric co-morbidities of migraine was variable among medical students at Khartoum University. Our study findings revealed a significant association between the intensity of migraine without medications and the psychological status of the patient. However, these results need to be affirmed by furthermore research with a large sample of medical students in different universities in Sudan.