[The Second Short Form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire as the useful additional tool for differential diagnostics of migraine and cervicogenic headache].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effectiveness of the Second Short Form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ-2) as an instrument for assessment and comparison of quantitative characteristics of pain in patients with chronic musculoskeletal impairment of the cervical spine and nonspecific neck pain accompanied by chronic migraine or cervicogenic headache (CeH).

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-nine patients, aged from 19 to 60 years (mean age 42.8±10.4), were divided into 2 comparable by age and gender groups with migraine ( n =18) and CeH ( n =31). Neck pain and headache intensity was measured by the 11-points Numerical Rating Scale (NRS). Quality of pain and related symptoms were measured by SF-MPQ-2. Multidisciplinary and multimodal approaches were applied for treatment, including several modalities of manual therapy.

RESULTS: Headache intensity was higher in the migraine group in comparison with the CeH group (7.8±1.7 vs 6.0±1.5, respectively; p <0.05). No significant differences in neck pain intensity were found (6.2±1.8 vs 5.3±1.7; p =0.08). Patients with migraine usually chose more descriptors than patients with CeH (14 vs 4, respectively) and higher range of their intensity ( p <0.001). By the end of treatment session, the number of descriptors and their intensity decreased significantly on all SF=MPQ-2 scales ( p <0.001) in both groups. Most patients of migraine and CeH group were satisfied with treatment (83% and 97%, respectively) and marked «much improved» and «very much improved» on the 7-point Patient Global Impression of Change scale.

CONCLUSION: SF-MPQ-2 is a useful tool for differential diagnosis of migraine and CeH, as it contains the sufficient number of descriptors and the scale for measuring their intensity.