Clinical Profile of Migraine in a Rural Population Presenting to Tertiary Care Hospital in North India.

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVE

Migraine is one of the most common types of headache leading to significant disability; still people do not seek early help in developing countries. Therefore, we planned to conduct a study to assess the clinical profile of migraine, its triggers, comorbidities, and related disability in rural India.

DESIGN

An observational study in which 1,245 men and women suffering from migraine were recruited at a tertiary care hospital and were asked to complete a questionnaire related to migraine, its triggers, comorbidities, and disability.

RESULTS

Out of 1245 patients, females constituted 75% (937) of the patient pool and rest 25% were males (308). Fatigability (52.7%), nausea/vomiting (42.7%), phonophobia (33.57%), numbness (28.2%), and vertiginous sensation (20.8%) were accompanying features. Stress was the most common trigger impacting 44.9% of the patient population, followed by noise in 44.3% of cases. Exertion and sleep disturbance acted as triggers in 36.1%, smells in 20.5%, hormonal factors in 11.5%, and visual stimuli in 5.1% of patients. Anxiety was identified as the most common comorbidity affecting 542 patients (43.5%), followed by depression in 25.7%of patients. Around 103 patients (8.2%) had other psychiatric illnesses such as panic disorder and bipolar mood disorder.

CONCLUSION

The migraine-related disability is high; therefore we conducted a study to understand its triggers and clinical profile. This was the first observational study conducted in a tertiary care hospital on migraine in north India catering to a sizeable rural population however, larger population studies are required to understand migraine more exhaustively.