BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Chronic pain approach in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, has gained space in recent years with the opening of the Central Hospital's Pain Unit. There are few epidemiological studies on chronic pain in Africa. In Mozambique, no previous study has been published. This study aimed at describing and analyzing headache features in chronic pain patients interviewed in the above-mentioned hospital. METHOD: Chronic pain patients according to International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) criteria, aged over 18 and fluent in Portuguese were included. Demographics, chronic pain features and presence of headache were investigated. RESULTS: Participated in this study 118 patients. From these, 79 (66.9%) were females and 39 (33.1%) were males, with mean age of 52.4 years. Headache was frequent among such patients (53/44.9%), although this was not necessarily their primary pain. Headache was the major second pain site. Migraine was diagnosed in 14 (11.9%) patients, tension headache in 28 (23.8%) and cervicogenic headache in 9 (7.6%). CONCLUSION: Data show that the prevalence of headache among chronic pain patients of the Pain Unit of the Central Hospital of Maputo is similar to that described for general population by other studies.
Africa; Chronic pain; Headache
