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.