Mix headache: A valid clinical entity?

Background: Chronic daily headache (CDH) patients respond better with a combination of anti-migraine and anti-stress medications, irrespective of clinical diagnosis of chronic migraine (CM) or chronic tension-type headache (CTTH).

Hypothesis: "CDH: Mix headache" type is a valid clinical entity.

Materials and Methods: A total of 70 participants fulfilling the diagnosis of "primary CDH", aged between 15 and 55 years were taken up for the present study. All these patients were subdivided into either CM or CTTH, based on the predominance of symptom profiles in these patients, in confirmation with the International Headache Society guidelines (International Classification of Headache Disorders-2, 2004). Schedules for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry (SCAN) were applied to these patients to collect information about any mental or behavioral symptoms present at the time of the study. Psychiatric comorbidity was confirmed according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10.

Results: Forty-eight (68.6%) patients could be differentiated into CM and rest 22 (31.4%) patients were given a diagnosis of CTTH. SCAN and ICD-10 diagnosis revealed the presence of comorbid anxiety and depressive illness in 47 (67.2%) patients. Thirty-four of them belonged to CM (MH) group and the rest 13 had CTTH.

Discussion: We propose that these 47 (67.2%) patients of CDH form our special category of "CDH - mix headache" subtype. Thus, 14 (20%) patients constitute "CDH - migraine" subtype and rest 9 (12.8%) patients have a diagnosis of "CDH - tension headache" subtype.

Conclusion: Findings of the present study validate the concept of "mix headache" and explains the clinical observation that chronic daily headache (CDH) patients responds better with a combination of anti-migraine and anti-stress medications.