Correlation between headaches and affective symptoms in patients with epilepsy

- The prevalence of headaches was 41.2% in patients with epilepsy.
- Features of tension-type headaches were the most frequent.
- Half of the interictal headaches and most of the seizure-related headaches were untreated.
- Headaches overall were significantly related to depression and anxiety.
- Pre- and postictal headaches were independently correlated with affective symptoms.

Headaches are a neglected entity in patients with epilepsy (PWE), although PWE have a high chance of suffering from seizure-related as well as seizure-unrelated headaches. We aimed to identify the prevalence and characteristics of headaches and investigate the correlation between headaches and affective symptoms in PWE. Consecutive PWE who visited our tertiary outpatient clinic were interviewed about headaches and epilepsy. Affective symptoms were evaluated using the Korean version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and suicidality portion of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. We classified headaches as interictal or seizure-related headaches (SRHs; pre- and postictal). Tension-type headache and migraine were defined based on International Classification of Headache Disorders criteria. From the initial cohort of 177 patients (92 men, mean age: 37.1 years), 73 (41.2%) reported suffering from interictal (N = 34, 19.2%), preictal (N = 3, 1.7%), and postictal (N = 48, 27.1%) headaches. Univariate analysis revealed significantly higher BDI and BAI scores in the headache group. Tension-type headaches were the most frequent, and half of the interictal headaches and most of the SRHs were untreated. Spearman's partial correlation analyses showed that headaches overall were significantly related with depression and anxiety. Interictal headaches were correlated with depression only, and postictal headaches were correlated with depression as well as suicidality, separately. These results show that investigating and controlling headaches may relieve affective symptoms and ultimately improve the quality of life of PWE.