Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Aim Vague physical symptoms or somatic complaints are very common chief complaints of patients suffering from mental illnesses. Though they are a recognized and accepted part of the neurotic disorders they are generally ignored as non-specific to psychotic disorders. Nonetheless, these so called vague symptoms are a source of persisting distress to the patient. The present study was therefore undertaken to assess the prevalence of headache, which is one of the most common somatic complaint, in patients suffering from psychotic disorder. Methods It was a cross sectional observational study without any intervention carried out in a tertiary hospital. The subjects were recruited as per the study criteria. A semi-structured questionnaire purpose built for the study was used to collect the study data – sociodemographic and clinical. The results were statistically analysed. Results A total of 245 subjects with mean age of 35.38 years (± 5.17 years) were recruited into the study. The mean duration of psychotic illness was 2.32 ± 0.54 Years. 53.87% of the study subjects were males and mostly belonging to Hindu religion. 64.08 % were unemployed. The prevalence of headache was 77.14 % (n=189) of the sample. The type of headache was classified as Migraine in 22.85%, Tension headache in 43.26 %, Cervicogenic headache in 7.75% of the study sample. The headache was classified as other or unspecified type in 3.26% of the study sample. Conclusions This study finds a headache prevalence of 77.14 % among patients suffering from psychotic disorders which is very high. Our study underlines and highlights the fact that somatic complaints like headache are also very common presenting complaints in psychotic disorders. These complaints need to be properly assessed and addressed as part of the comprehensive work up and treatment plan. Keywords: Prevalence; Psychosis; Headache.