Prevalence Of Dissociative Symptoms In Female Patients With Chronic Migraine, And Its Relationship With Depression-Anxiety

Certain psychiatric symptoms such as dissociative disorder, anxiety, and depression are more prevalent in migraine patients than in the rest of the society. Identification of these symptoms is important for the treatment success. We define the purpose of our study as the comparison of the levels of dissociative symptoms, anxiety, and depression between patients with chronic migraine and normal individuals, and the analysis of these levels for their relationship with the demographic properties such as severity of pain and frequency of attacks. The study included 77 female patients with chronic migraine who applied to the neurology polyclinic with the complaint of headache and were diagnosed by the criteria defined by International Headache Society, and 44 healthy volunteers with similar age and educational level with those patients. Both groups were applied Short Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-Taxon), Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ), Beck Anxiety Scale (BAS), and Beck Depression Scale (BDS) by a psychologist. Demographic and clinical properties and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) results of patients with identified types of migraine were recorded. The scale results of patients with migraine and of the control group, and between the patients of migraine aura and without aura were compared. The results were compared by T-test and Pearson Correlation for the independent group. Dissociative symptoms was more common in the group with migraine (p=0,001). While this increase was correlated with depression and severity of pain, it was not correlated with anxiety. There was not any significant difference between migraine patients of migraine with aura and without aura, statistically. The results of this study reveals that the frequency of dissociative symptoms is higher in patients with migraine than in normal population. This difference was found to be in correlation with depression and VAS score. According to these data, it is important for the success of treatment and prevention of disability to question the symptoms of dissociative symptoms in patients with chronic migraine