Idiopathic stabbing headache is a quite unknown disorder. Its main features consist of brief stabbing pains, lasting few seconds. In most cases, idiopathic stabbing headache is underdiagnosed. We have followed up migraine patients during a period of 12 months, aiming to determine the prevalence and main features of idiopathic stabbing headache while occuring apart from migraine attacks. Two hundred and thirty-three of the 280 patients initially surveyed were included in the analysis of the results. Ninety-four patients presented idiopathic stabbing headaches (40.4%), being 72 of them females (76.5%). For migraine with idiopathic stabbing headaches, mean age, age of beginning of migraine and years with migraine were 33, 22.5 and 10.6 years, respectively. Mean duration of the idiopathic stabbing headaches was reported to be 1.42 seconds [ 1 second by 68 patients (72.4%), 2 seconds by 17 (18.1%), 3 seconds by 6 (6.3%), 4 seconds by 1 (1.05%) and 5 seconds by 2 (2.15%)]. Pain paroxysms were reported to be unilateral by 86 (91.4%) and bilateral by 8 (8.6%) of the cases. They were reported to be temporal by 56 patients (60%), occipital by 15 (15.6%), frontal by 8 (8.5%), temporo-occipital by 7 (7.4%), parietal by 5 (5.3%), fronto-temporal by 1 (1.06%), cervical by 1 (1.06%) and ocular by 1 patient (1.06%). The study confirms a high prevalence of idiopathic stabbing headaches in migraineurs. Its main clinical features could be well determined during the interval between migraine attacks.
idiopathic stabbing headache; migraine; prevalence
