STUDY ON CLINICAL CORRELATION BETWEEN MIGRAINE AND MOOD DISORDERS

Background: It has been definitely established by numerous populations and clinical research studies that mood disorders are comorbid with migraine with a frequency more than would be expected by chance. Aim and Objectives: The present study was done to establish that mood disorders are comorbid with migraine with increased disability and to identify any clinical features in migraineurs which may be associated with mood disorders. Material and Methods: It was a hospital based cross sectional study. The index cases were obtained from patients attending the Psychiatry Outpatient of a tertiary care hospital (Career Institute of Medical Sciences) during a period from March 01, 2018 to February 28, 2019. The cases were identified to have migraine by International Classification of Headache Disorder 3 beta criteria.To assess disability, Migraine Disability Assessment Questionnaire (MIDAS) was applied to all patients.The presence of concurrent anxiety and mood disorders was assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: A total of 200 patients were studied during the study. The sample consisted mostly (n = 168, 84%) of middle age (25?50 years) individuals with mean (standard deviation [SD]) of age of 35.13 (8.59) years. It was a female predominant sample (n = 140, 70%). As per HADS score, among the 22 patients (11%) suffering from depressive symptoms, 45.5% (n = 10) had borderline abnormal score and 54.5% (n = 12) had abnormal score whereas among the 32 persons (16%) suffering from anxiety 21.9% (n = 7) had borderline score and 78.1% (n = 25) had abnormal score. Conclusion: We found a prevalence of 16% of anxiety and 11% of depression in migraineurs, a rate comparable to or less than many studies in international literature and a significantly increased disability in individuals with comorbid mood disorders and migraine. Routinely including questionnaires such as HAD in screening patients with migraine to rule out comorbid mood disorders may be warranted.