The effect of greater occipital nerve blockade on the quality of life, disability and comorbid depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance in patients with chronic migraine.

Abstract

The greater occipital nerve block (GONB) with local anesthetics is an effective treatment for chronic migraine (CM). In this study, it was aimed to demonstrate the change in quality of life, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance scores before and after treatment in CM patients who underwent GONB and the effectiveness of treatment. The study included 84 patients diagnosed as CM according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders III beta version diagnostic criteria. The 24-Hour Migraine Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQoLQ), Migraine Disability Assessment Scale (MIDAS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Headache Impact Test (HIT), and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) were applied on patients before GONB treatment and at posttreatment months 1 and 3. MQoLQ scores, which measured the daily quality of life, were 38 [3-66] before GONB treatment, and 64 [38-88] in the first month and 72 [40-86] in the third month after treatment.In addition, this increase was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Furthermore,we found a statistically significant decrease in disability, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance scores after treatment (p < 0.05). In this study, we observed a prominent improvement in quality of life and disability rates of CM patients treated with GONB compared to pretreatment. We also demonstrated that the treatment was effective in comorbid depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance scores.