Prevalence, characteristics and management of headache experienced by people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: a cross sectional cohort study

Objectives: Headache is the most common type of pain reported by people with schizophrenia. This study aimed to establish prevalence, characteristics and management of these headaches. Methods: One hundred participants with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder completed a reliable and valid headache questionnaire. Two clinicians independently classified each headache as migraine, tension-type, cervicogenic or other. Results: The 12-month prevalence of headache (57%) was higher than the general population (46%) with no evidence of a relationship between psychiatric clinical characteristics and presence of headache. Prevalence of cervicogenic (5%) and migraine (18%) was comparable to the general population. Tension-type (16%) had a lower prevalence and 19% of participants experienced other headache. No one with migraine was prescribed migraine specific medication; no one with cervicogenic and tension-type received best-practice treatment. Conclusions: Headache is a common complaint in people with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder with most fitting recognised diagnostic criteria for which effective interventions are available. No one in this sample was receiving best-practice care for their headache.