Classification of migraine and tension type headache in Southern Punjab

Background: headache is one of the commonest neurological conditions which have huge impact on daily functioning. little is known about the prevalence of primary headaches in outpatient clinics in pakistan and especially southern punjab. aim: to classify and estimate the frequency of patients with migraine and tensiontype headache in an outpatient clinic where most of these patients present. methods: outpatients who newly visited the department of neurology,sheikh zayed medical college/hospital,rahim yar khan during august 2013 to jan 2014 were analyzed. each parameter such as age,sex or diagnosis was analyzed. the ichdii criteria for headache diagnoses were used. results: 100 patients 73 women and 27 men of whom 63 had tension type headache and 37 had migraine were included. tension type headache was most common diagnoses and the male to female ratio was around 1:3. the average age of patients was 28.2±10.4 years. chronic daily headache was found in 36% of patients and tension type headache was the most common underlying cause. conclusion: all these results suggest that primary headache,especially tth,is highly observed in an outpatient clinic where most patients first present in a teaching hospital. followup studies to describe epidemiology and burden of headache in pakistan are needed.