Psychiatric comorbidities in patients with headache disorders in Pakistani and Afghani population

Objective: to know the psychiatric comorbidities in patients with headache disorders in pakistani and afghani population. material and methods: we reviewed and analyzed the data obtained through a semi-structured psychiatric interview from 8,890 patients who visited our clinic for treatment from july 2013 to july 2016. two assessors made the diagnoses according to international classification of headache disorders,3rd ed beta (ichd-3) for diagnosis of headache disorders,and icd-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders,clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines for the diagnoses of comorbid psychiatric disorders. association of headache types and symptoms of psychiatric disorders were analysed using pearson chi square test,keeping alpha value less than. 05. results: 13620(15.3%)of patients out of 8,890 had headache as one of their chief complaints. migraine was diagnosed in 867(63.7%),tension-type headache in 204(15%),secondary headache in 55(4%),cephalagias in 33(2.4%). symptoms of depression were present in 60.4% (n=822),symptoms of anxiety in 474(34.8%),somatic complaints in 162(11.9%) and dissociative symptoms in120(8.8 %) of the patients. there was evidence of association between migraine and symptoms of anxiety in patients who presented with complaint of headache,more so in females than in males (p<.001). conclusion: migraine is highly comorbid with anxiety symptoms than with symptoms of depression and this association is strong in females. © 2017,khyber medical college. all rights reserved.