Abstract

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE.: To study the prevalence and clinical characteristics of migraine in epileptic patients and to compare these epidemiological and clinical data with those in general population BACKGROUND: Systematic investigation of the characteristics of seizure-associated headaches is rare. Although data on the prevalence and characteristics of migraine in general population are numerous, few studies have investigated the relation between migraine and epilepsy METHODS: One hundred seventy two epileptic patients (98 female and 74 male) participated in a semi-standardized interview and study about headaches particularly migraine type. RESULTS: Seventy four out of the 172 epileptic patients had headache of one type or another (57%), migraine occurred in 34 patients (19.7%),female migraineurs (24 cases) and male (10 cases) (female/male ratio 2.4:1). Migraine occurred in isolation in 18 cases and was mixed with other headache types in 16 cases. Migraine cases without aura constituted 67.7% (23 cases), and with aura 31.3% (11 cases). In non-aura cases female (18 cases) outnumbered male (5 cases), unlike in aura cases (6 female vs 5 male cases) CONCLUSION : Migraine is much more prevalent in epileptics (19.7%)than in general population (11-12%). Other wise migraine in epileptics has similar clinical characteristics to migraine in general population including clinical varieties and gender distribution