Evaluation of prevalence of headache in Multiple Sclerosis patients before after the disease

Background: Multiple Sclerosis disease is a chronic disease of nervous system which causes different symptoms. Although headache is not a major symptom of this disease, but a lot of patients suffer from it. To specify the prevalence of headache and its’ types has an important role in diagnose, treatment and improvement the quality of patients’ life. Objective: Our goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of headache in multiple sclerosis patients, before and after the diagnosis of this disease. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive epidemiologic study was performed on 150 multiple sclerosis patients referred to the neurology clinic of Qazvin in 2015. Data were recorded by history taking & physical examination the existence of headache before the MS diagnosis and at the time of study was evaluated by the patients’ data. Findings: Among participants, prevalence of headache before the MS diagnosis was 40%, which increased to 64% after that (P<0.001). The most common type of headache, before and after the affection was tension headache, which formed 58.3% and 70.8% of all headaches, respectively. The average rate of headache in the group with headache, before and after the diagnosis of MS was 5.8 and 5.76 days in month, which calculated 2.32 and 3.68 days in month in all patients, respectively. Conclusion: Prevalence of headache increases in multiple sclerosis patients. Patients suffer from headache almost 13% of their life days.