Analysis of headache in a Chinese patient population

One hundred and fifty patients with headache were studied by initial interview, before beginning treatment in the pain clinic. The McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) for Headache and a Bakal Topographic Chart were translated into Chinese and employed to assess the characteristics of the headache. The series included significantly more women than men. The elderly were in low proportion, but teenagers were a significant proportion. Women tended to report a longer headache history than men. Topographically, 50% of patients had bilateral temporal headache, and 18% had unilateral headache, more on the right than on the left. Most of the patients were considered to belong to tension headache and mixed headache types (40% and 26%, respectively). Major aggravators resulting in headache hypersensitivity were overwork, fatigue, insomnia, poor sleep, stress, and tension. Analgesics were the primary means of relief reported in 46% of the patients, while resting and sleeping (44% and 27% respectively) were also found to be significant relief factors. In the McGill Pain Questionnaire, specific subclasses of miscellaneous dimension and sensory description. Chinese patients used different classes and far fewer MPQ words than patients reported in the western literature.