Prevalence, Characteristics and Psychiatric Co- morbidities of Migraine in Medical Students in Khartoum university and Its Impact on Their Daily Activities

Abstract Background : Migraine is a common neurological disorder with significant psychiatric co-morbidities and impact on quality of life. Medical students routinely have triggers, notably stress and irregular sleep, which are typically associated with migraine. The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence, characteristics, and psychiatric co-morbidities of migraine in medical students and its impact on their life. Information about lifestyle variables was also collected. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study, institutional based at University of Khartoum, Faculty of Medicine for 356 students chosen by a multi stage stratified sampling for the batch and gender, followed by a simple random sampling, through self-administered questionnaire about demographics, pain characteristics, accompanying and alleviating factors, triggers and aura symptoms if any. Associated disability, and psychiatric co-morbidities were assessed by MIDAS and PHQ- 4, respectively. Migraine diagnosis was made according to ID Migraine. Results : The participants included 63.8% females and 36.2% males. Sixty-six percent of medical students confirmed of having 2 or more general headaches during the past 3 months. The prevalence of migraine was 27.25% in the whole study group; and 41% of the headache group. There was a female preponderance, though not statistically significant. Most students have an age of onset between 15-18 years old (61.9%), pressure pain type (39.2%), headache triggered by stress (12.3%), without aura symptoms (52.6%), and had a mild psychological distress (36%). Conclusion: our findings indicated that there was a high prevalence of migraine among the medical students under our study, and these findings were consistent with those of previous studies in Iran and other countries. Further studies must be done, and attention must be paid.