Frequency of Anxiety and Depression in Migraine - A study of 102 Patients

OBJECTIVE: The study was aimed to see the frequency of Anxiety and Depression among patients with Migraine. DESIGN: Cross sectional study. SETTING: Department of Psychiatry, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Karachi and Department of Psychiatry Ziauddin University Hospital, KDLB campus, Kemari Karachi DURATION: 1st June 2007 to 30th November 2007 METHODS: Referred patients of headache diagnosed as suffering from migraine were selected for the study. Diagnosis of migraine was based on the criteria for migraine designed by International Headache Society. Patients were enrolled irrespective of age and sex. Only those patients were included who fulfilled the selection criteria. Any routine or relevant investigations wherever required were carried out. Following selection of the cases, the patients were administered the Hospital Anxiety & Depression Scale, Urdu version. All the findings were recorded on a preformed Proforma. The data were compiled, tabulated and analyzed using SPSS version 10. RESULTS: One hundred and two patients with migraine comprising 65 females (63.8%) and 37 males (36.2%), minimum age of presentation 11 years and maximum 71 years completed the study. Majority of the patients (75%) aged between 20 and 50 years. On screening for psychiatric caseness using the validated Urdu Version of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale with a cutoff score of 11-21 for both anxiety and depression 58 patients (56.8%) had psychiatric morbidity. Therefore, 44 patients (43.1%) were not positive for psychiatric caseness. Of the 58 patients with positive psychiatric caseness, there were 23 males 40%) and 35 females (60%). These included 25 patients (43%) with anxiety, 18 patients (31%) of depression while 15 patients (26%) had both anxiety and depression. Eighty percent of the 58 patients with positive psychiatric caseness aged between 20-50 years. CONCLUSION: Migraine has a significant association with anxiety and depression. Frequency of this association may be influenced by sex and age.