Is psychiatric morbidity in chronic migraine associated with poor outcome: Experience from a tertiary care centrer.

Introduction: Chronic Migraine is defined as headache occurring on 15 or more days/month for more than 3 months, which, on at least 8 days/month, has the features of migraine headache. This constitutes 10%-15% of all migraine patients in a neurology clinic. Literature on psychological comorbidities of chronic migraine in India is scant and it will improve overall patient care once discerned.

Aim: To screen for psychiatric comorbidities in chronic migraine patients.

Subjects And Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare overall psychiatric morbidity of 100 patients of chronic migraine and control group of 100 healthy individuals.

Results: Chronic migraine cases had more psychological disturbance in comparison to healthy control (61% vs. 4%). Psychiatric morbidity was more in patients with higher migraine disability assessment score (MIDAS) Scores and frequent relapses. Significant anxiety and depression was seen in women, higher age group and higher MIDAS Values.

Conclusions: The prevalence of psychological distress in Chronic migraine was significantly more, implying that they experience more psychological distress than the general population. Identifying these will result in better patient care in addition to standard drugs.