Objective: This case control study was undertaken to ascertain the frequency of subclinical and overt hypothyroidism in patients with various types of primary headache disorders in Kashmir, North India. Methods: The study was conducted in a tertiary care (university of Kashmir) hospital of North India. The study subjects consisted of 250 patients with primary headache disorders. This was compared with an age-sex matched control of 500 subjects. Thyroid function tests were performed by new automated immunochemiluminometric assay. Results: Among patients with primary headache disorders, subclinical hypothyroidism was present in 22% and overt hypothyroidism in 7.2%. On the other hand, subclinical hypothyroidism was observed in 11.2% and overt hypothyroidism in 1.2% of cases in the control group, the differences between primary headache and control group was statistically significant (p<0.05). Frequency of hypothyroidism was more in chronic headache disorders (chronic tension-type headache and migraine). The frequency of hypothyroidism in patients with primary headache disorders was higher among females than males, but this was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). Conclusion: Hypothyroidism is found to be a co-morbidity or predisposes to the development of chronic headache (tension-type headache and migraine) in this North Indian study.
Headache Disorders ; Hypothyroidism ; Migraine Disorders