PMID: 28496499May 13, 2017Paper

Psychiatric Comorbidities and Environmental Triggers in Patients with Chronic Daily Headache: A Lifestyle Study

Iranian Journal of Psychiatry
Fakhrudin FaiziMasoud Saghafinia

Abstract

Objective: Patients with chronic daily headache (CDH) suffer from several significant psychiatric comorbidities and have unhealthy lifestyle. We aimed at studying psychiatric comorbidities, environmental triggers, lifestyle factors, and intensity of CDH in patients referred by the department of neurology from 2011 to 2014. Method: Through medical and psychiatric interviews and using 0 to 10 visual analogue scale (VAS), we assessed patients with CDH, using a checklist, to elicit psychiatric comorbidities, intensity of CDH, environmental factors, and lifestyle derangement. Results: We interviewed 413 (age 16-80 years, mean 40 +/- 14.0) out of 548 patients; 312 (75.5%) were married, and 282 (68.1%) were female. Environmental triggers (374, 90.6%) were the most common cause of CDH, while 214 (51.8%) had no compliance to recommended nutrition. Exercise avoidance (201, 48.7%) was the less prevalent lifestyle factor. Of the patients, 372 (90.1%) were stressed and 162 (39.2%) had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which were the most and less prevalent psychiatric comorbidities, respectively. Intensity of pain was moderate to severe (mean score = 7.1+/- 1.9), while females reported higher VAS scores (p<0.02). Patients with previous h...Continue Reading

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Anxiety Disorders

Discover the latest research on anxiety disorders including agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder here.