Recognizing Risk of Psychiatric Comorbidity in Headache: Looking for Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Headache: A Study from General Hospital in Kashmir (India)

Abstract

Background: Headache is one of the most common neurological symptom that we come across, but very few well-planned studies have been conducted to know its psychiatric aspects .The aim of the study was to investigate the socio demographic profile, clinical types and psychiatric comorbidity in patients with various types of headache. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study for a period of one and a half years in Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital of Government medical college. The study was conducted in patients attending the medical outpatient department (OPD) for headache. The diagnosis of various headache disorders was established by adopting the International Headache Society criteria (2004). A total of 200 patients were screened. Psychopathology was measured using MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview Schedule PLUS (MINI PLUS). Descriptive statistics was used to report the socio-demographic characteristics of the patients. Chi-square was used to assess association between categorical variables and a p-value of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. Results: Among 200 patients, there were 83 (41.5%) males and 117 (58.5%) females. Their ages ranged between 18 years to 78.5 years, with mean (± SD) of 35.85 (± 9.45) years. Psychiatric morbidity in headache was 47%. The psychiatric morbidity was more in females (53%) than males (38.6%) (P-value=0.044). Psychiatric morbidity was also found more in urban (58.3%) than rural areas (42.1) (p-value= 0.036). Tension-type headache (48%) was the most predominate type of headache. Conclusion: Patients with headache had higher psychiatric morbidity. Screening patients with headache for psychiatric disorders and timely psychiatric intervention can go a long way in improving the quality of life of headache with comorbid psychiatric disorders.