Headache and migraine in mitochondrial disease and its impact on life—results from a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study

Abstract

Headache is frequent in patients with mitochondrial disorders. Previous studies point to a higher prevalence of headache in these patients than in the general population. As mitochondrial disorders often present a variety of other symptoms, the question arises how much the presence of headache really influences daily life. We performed a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study investigation with 61 patients with a genetically proved mitochondrial disease mainly composed of CPEO phenotype. Headache was examined using a standardized questionnaire, and classified according to ICHD-2. Headache-related disability was evaluated by the Headache-Impact-Test-6 (HIT-6). Additionally, depression and anxiety were examined using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Short-Form-Health Survey (SF-12) was used to investigate the health-related quality of life. Headache was reported by 43/61 (70.5%) of the patients. 35/61 patients (57.4%) described a Tension-type headache (TTH) and 26 patients (42.6%) a migraine. Patients reporting headache had a significantly higher HIT-6 score than those without (mean: 54.47 vs. 38.47, p p

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