Abstract
Although anxiety disorders and headaches are comorbid conditions, there have been no studies evaluating the prevalence of primary headaches in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The aim of this study was to analyze the lifetime prevalence of primary headaches in individuals with and without GAD. A total of 60 individuals were evaluated: 30 GAD patients and 30 controls without mental disorders. Psychiatric assessments and primary headache diagnoses were made using structured interviews. Among the GAD patients, the most common diagnosis was migraine, which was significantly more prevalent among the GAD patients than among the controls, as were episodic migraine, chronic daily headache and aura. Tension-type headache was equally common in both groups. Primary headaches in general were significantly more common and more severe in GAD patients than in controls. In anxiety disorder patients, particularly those with GAD, accurate diagnosis of primary headache can improve patient management and clinical outcomes.
Highlights
Migraine is a common and debilitating chronic neurological illness [1], the lifetime prevalence rates of which are 12–22% in women and 4–10% in men [2]
Within the generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) group, there were no gender-related differences in terms of the frequency of primary headaches, headache or tension-type headache (TTH)
The comorbidity between affective disorders and GAD is generally high, and it would not be surprising to find a distinct relationship between GAD and migraine
Summary
Migraine is a common and debilitating chronic neurological illness [1], the lifetime prevalence rates of which are 12–22% in women and 4–10% in men [2]. The prevalence of chronic migraine in the general population ranges from 2 to 3% [3,4,5]. A common comorbidity is anxiety, which is found in up to 75% of cases [7]. That study, which provided the most consistent epidemiologic data currently available, demonstrated that anxiety disorders were the most prevalent mental disorders in the general population. The National Comorbidity Survey, conducted in 1990, showed that the lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorder was 24% [8]. The lifetime prevalence of GAD is 3.1%, whereas the 12-month prevalence is 5.1% [8]
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