Background and Aim: Migraine is a spiking prime headache disorder that has a significant impact on both patients and society. Migraine and other headache disorders are major causes of misery and frailty on a global scale. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of migraine in young male patients presented with severe headache.

Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 276 young male patients who presented with severe headache Medicine outpatient department (OPD) at Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad from August 2019 to July 2020.  Criteria of International Classification of Headache Disorders were followed for headache diagnosis. All the patients of age range 15-40 years with severe headaches were enrolled whereas patients of previous chronic medical conditions were excluded. Ethical approval was taken from the institutional ethical committee. All the demographic details were gathered in a pre-designed proforma. SPSS version 24 was used for data analysis.  

Results: A total of 276 young adult patients who presented with severe headaches were investigated during the study period. The mean age was 29.38±8.65 years with an age varies from 15 years to 40 years. Most of the patients were in the age range of 31-40 years 132 (47.8%) followed by 21 to 30 years 97 (35.1%). Patients of age 15-20 years were less frequent with a prevalence of 47 (17.1%). The overall prevalence of migraine headache was in 137 (49.6%) patients out of which migraine with and without aura was 5.7% and 43.9% respectively. Tension-type headache being the second common headache was found in 23.7% followed by Cluster headache at 2.8%. 

Conclusion: Migraine without aura was the most prominent headache among young male outpatients with severe headache. The findings highlight the socioeconomic factors impact on headache epidemiology and show that excessive use of NSAIDs may have an effect the primary headaches distribution. More multicenter studies are needed to assess headache epidemiology across the country.

Keywords: Severe Headache, Migraine, Prevalence, Tension Type Headache (TTH)