Characteristics of headache disorders, according to ICHD-III in an outpatient headache clinic in Sohag Governorate, Egypt

Headache disorders are rated among the ten most disabling conditions around the world. The primary headache disorders are more common that of secondary headache. The third edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-III) is considered as a helpful tool for classification and diagnosis of different headache disorders.

This is a cross-sectional study that included 500 patients who attended to the headache clinic, between May 2018 and April 2019. Arabic version of headache questionnaire was used to characterize headache, according to ICHD-III.

Primary headache disorders were found in 89% (most of them is episodic in nature 76.2%), secondary headache disorders in about 10%, and painful cranial neuropathy was present in 0.8%. Primary headache associated with sexual activity was present in 1% of the total number of headache patients, and episodic cluster headache was found in 0.8%. Medication overuse headache (MOH) was the most frequent secondary headache with 2.8% of the total number of headache patients, and when overlaps with chronic migraine or chronic tension type of headache (TTH), the percent was 12.8% and 8.8% respectively. Male to female ratio was 1:3, 3:5, and 1:1 in primary headache, secondary headache, and painful cranial neuropathy respectively. Simple analgesia was the most common abortive therapy (44.8%) while the antidepressants were the most common preventive treatment (17%).

This study estimates the frequency and characterizes different headache disorders, according to ICHD-III in an outpatient headache clinic at Sohag Governorate, Egypt.