Clinical profile and functional disability of patients with migraine

Background: Migraine is a common disabling primary headache disorder. Globally, migraine was ranked as the seventh highest cause of disability. Aim: The aim of the study was to explore the clinical profile and functional disability of patients with migraine. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at the neurology outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Karnataka. Materials and Methods: Using a consecutive sampling technique, 60 patients were recruited for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: Majority of the participants were in the age group of 18-40 years with a mean age 35.22 years. There was a female preponderance with 70% of study participants being females. The various symptoms experienced by patients include throbbing pain (90%), photophobia (93.3%), phonophobia (85%), nausea (76.7%), and vomiting (41.7%). Most of the subjects (73.3%) under the study belonged to moderate to severe levels of functional disability. About 53.3% of patients were in the category of episodic migraine and 46.7% were in the category of chronic migraine. Conclusion: Migraine is associated with moderate to severe functional disability. Frequency of migraine has a positive correlation with the levels of disability/migraine disability assessment scores of migraineurs.