The burden of headache in people with epilepsy

Abstract

People with epilepsy experience headaches irrespective of their sex or age. The burden of headaches is very important in patients with epilepsy, since headaches usually cause a moderate or severe burden to their quality of life and suggest a clear clinical need. Clinicians should recognize headache as a common comorbidity of epilepsy, as it may influence antiepileptic drug choice, and may need specific treatment.

Epilepsy and headaches: Further evidence of a link

“…In patients experiencing solely interictal headaches, 47% of their headaches were migraine type, and 41.5% TTH, although about 11.8% of headaches could not be classified in this group. In previous studies, the frequency of interictal headaches in patients with epilepsy was reported in the range of 19.3% to 77.9% [8,[13][14][15][16][17][18]. Our inability to establish the period in which patients with headaches in multiple periods experienced headaches more often could be the reason for our detecting a lower rate of interictal headaches compared with previous studies.…”

“…In our study group, 56.4% of patients had headaches. The rate of experiencing headache was reported in the range of 22% to 83.2% in patients with epilepsy [5,8,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The differences in age groups, diagnostic and classification criteria, and the methodology used in the target population could explain this wide range of percentages.…”

“…Only a few studies in the literature investigated the relationship between epilepsy and TTH [13,22,25]. Tension headache was more frequent among patients with epilepsy in some studies [17,18,22], whereas another one suggested equal prevalence of migraine and TTH in patients with epilepsy [25]. The relationship between epilepsy and TTH is therefore not yet clear.…”

Bidirectional relations among common psychiatric and neurologic comorbidities and epilepsy: Do they have an impact on the course of the seizure disorder?

“…Unfortunately, depression and migraines remain undertreated in the US population and are infrequently addressed within the neurologic clinic, in particular in the pediatric population . Not surprisingly, these 2 comorbid disorders of epilepsy have been associated with a worse quality of life in PWE …”

Migraine Improvement After Anterior Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation for Drug‐Resistant Idiopathic Generalized Seizure: A Case Report

“…For instance, the migraine aura is considered to occur over a longer period than the epilepsy aura. Moreover, previously published studies stated that migraine and tension‐type headache are the most frequently diagnosed headache conditions coexisting with seizure …”