Background and aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the burden of headache in neurology outpatient clinics (NOCs) regardless of their primary complaint.
Methods: Patients presenting for their routine appointments in 41 NOCs were screened during the course of 1 week. All eligible subjects (n = 3682; 61.9% female, mean age 45.2 +/- 16.5 years) were evaluated by a neurologist for the headache diagnosis and some demographic characteristics.
Results: Of all patients, 66.4% reported headache, and in 35.1% headache was the primary cause for admitting to the NOC. Of 3682 patients, 917 (24.9%) were diagnosed as migraine according to International Headache Society (IHS) criteria. Thirty-three and nine-tenths percent of all patients admitted and 56% of the migraineurs according to IHS had severe headaches. As the headache severity increases, the ratio of the patients admitted with headache as the primary complaint increases significantly. The distribution of burden and other characteristics of headache did not differ in seven geographic regions and 41 different centers.
Conclusion: Headache complaint caused at least 1/3 of all neurological outpatient visits in Turkey and 2/3 of all patients admitted to NOC had headache. Of these patients, 1/4 had migraine according to IHS with substantial disability and severity level.