Prevalence of Cervicogenic Headache and Associated Factors among the Patients with Chronic Headache

Cervicogenic headache is a kind of chronic headache that originates from the bony structures or soft tissues of the neck and is characterized by unilateral headache and lasts from hours to weeks، which can spread to the fronto-temporal and preorbital areas. So far، there has been no exact statistics of prevalence of the cervicogenic headache in Guilan Province. To determination the relative frequency of cervicogenic headache and its relative factors among patients with chronic headache In this descriptive study، the patients’ files، referred to Neurology clinic of Guilan University of Medical Sciences from March 2010 until September 2012 with complaints of chronic headache، were assessed. We used cervicogenic headache international study group diagnostic criteria for diagnosis of cervicogenic headache. The data were recorded in the special form of information and the relative frequency of cervicogenic headache was determined among them. Independent t-Test، Chi Square and Fisher’s Exact test in SPSS software version 18، were used to analyze data. Among 174 patients with chronic headache، a total of 69 patients were identified with cervicogenic headache (39. 7%). The mean age of all patients was 40±13. 8 years، those with cervicogenic headache were 14. 4±46. 5 years and those with non-cervicogenic headache were 36. 2±11. 7years old (P= 0. 0001). Gender distribution was similar in both groups. The mean of headache duration was 34. 5±21. 9 hours in each episode of headache. As revealed، 95. 7% of the patients with cervicogenic headache had neck pain. Cervicogenic headache is prevalent among chronic headaches، but it is almost always ignored whereas early diagnosis and treatment can reduce the expensive course of treatment and disability that accompanies this challenging disorder.