STUDY TO KNOW THE INCIDENCE AND PATTERN OF COMMON PRIMARY HEADACHE AMONG PATIENTS WITH DEPRESSIVE DISORDER

Background: Primary headache is the type of headache that has no established organic cause. The headaches that have organic origin are classified as secondary headaches. Primary headache disorders include migraine, tension-type headache, cluster headache and other primary headaches.

Aim: Aim of this study was to determine the frequency of co-morbid common primary headaches among patients with depressive disorder.

 Patients and Methods: This study was conducted in the Jinnah Hospital Lahore, for the duration of six months from September 2019 to March 2020, and comprised depressed patients. Diagnosis of depressive disorder was based on diagnostic criteria of International Classification of Diseases (10th version). For the diagnosis of common primary headaches, International Classification of Headache Disorders (2nd edition) criteria were applied. SPSS 17 was used for data analysis.

 Results: A total of 331 patients included in this study, 129(39%) were males and 202(61%) were females. The overall mean age was 31.40±8.6 years (range: 18-50 years). Besides, 208(62.83%) participants had no headache and 123(37.16%) had common primary headaches. Of the latter, 18(5.4%) had migraine with aura, 49(14.8%) had migraine without aura and 56(16.9%) had tension-type headache. Common primary headaches were more common in females and among those having severe depressive disorder.

Conclusion: The primary headache was common among outpatients with depressive disorder, predominantly tension-type headache and migraine without aura.

 Keywords: Primary headache, Migraine, Tension-type headache, Depressive disorder.