Faculdade Pernambucana de Saúde, Scientific Initiation Fellowships Institutional Program, Recife, PE, Brazil.
Headache. 2011 Sep;51(8):1279-84. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2011.01977.x.
To evaluate why patients do not discuss their headaches with their doctors and to compare these patients with those who seek medical assistance for headache.
Cross-sectional study. A total of 200 consecutive patients attended by family doctors had their complaints registered. Those with headaches were interviewed. A semi-structured questionnaire, Headache Impact Test and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were used.
Fifty-two percent had headaches. Ten percent sought medical assistance for headache, 11% already had received some form of medical assistance for headache. There was no association between headache disability and seeking a doctor for headache. Patients that did not seek a doctor for headache had a higher prevalence of tension-type headache (59.6% vs. 22.1%; P < .01), a lower prevalence of migraine with aura (32.3% vs. 40.5%; P < .01), headache intensity (5.4 vs. 6.8; P = .01) and frequency (4.2 × 7.4 days/month; P < .01). Fifty-two percent of them needed preventive treatment. Most of them did not seek a doctor because their headaches were mild or received relief from painkillers.
Patients who did not seek medical assistance for headache had more tension-type headache, less migraine with aura, lower headache intensity and frequency, but the same headache disability. Most of them needed preventive treatment and did not seek doctors because their headache was mild or received relief from painkillers.
评估患者为何不与医生讨论头痛，并比较这些患者与因头痛寻求医疗帮助的患者。
横断面研究。共登记了 200 名由家庭医生就诊的连续患者的投诉。对有头痛的患者进行了访谈。使用了半结构化问卷、头痛影响测试和医院焦虑抑郁量表。
52%的患者有头痛。10%因头痛寻求医疗帮助，11%已经因头痛接受过某种形式的医疗帮助。头痛残疾与因头痛看医生之间没有关联。未因头痛看医生的患者紧张型头痛的患病率更高（59.6%比 22.1%；P < 0.01），偏头痛伴先兆的患病率更低（32.3%比 40.5%；P < 0.01），头痛强度（5.4 比 6.8；P = 0.01）和频率（4.2 × 7.4 天/月；P < 0.01）。其中 52%需要预防治疗。他们大多数人不寻求医生治疗，因为他们的头痛是轻微的，或者止痛药能缓解疼痛。
未因头痛寻求医疗帮助的患者更易患紧张型头痛，偏头痛伴先兆的患病率较低，头痛强度和频率较低，但头痛残疾程度相同。他们大多数人需要预防治疗，并且由于头痛轻微或止痛药可以缓解疼痛而未寻求医生治疗。
