Headache among medical and psychology students

• Main Authors: João Eliezer Ferri-de-Barros, Mauricio José de Alencar, Luis Felipe Berchielli, Luis Carlos Castelhano Junior
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academia Brasileira de Neurologia (ABNEURO) 2011-06-01
• Series: Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria
• Subjects: cefaléias; enxaqueca; cefaléia tensional; estudantes de medicina; estudantes de psicologia; educação sociocêntrica
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2011000400018&lng=en&tlng=en

Headaches occur frequently and thus are a key component of sociocentric medical education. OBJECTIVE: To study headaches among students of medicine and psychology in a single university. METHOD: This was a questionnaire-based survey of a cohort of students of medicine and psychology. RESULTS: The overall lifetime prevalence of headache was 98% and over the last year, 91%. Tensional headache accounted for 59% and migraine 22% in medicine; and 48.5% and 32% respectively in psychology. Forty-five percent reported that headaches had a variable sporadic impact on their productivity. The self-medication rate was 77%. Thirty-six percent reported worsening since admission to the university. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of headaches was very high. Tension-type headaches predominated in males and migraine in females. Tension-type was more frequent among medical students than among psychology students; migraine was more frequent in psychology (more females) than in medicine. Both kinds of students reported that headaches caused low interference with daily activities. The students reported that their symptoms had worsened since admission to the university.