An Epidemiological Study of Headache Among the Monks of Athos (Greece)

Abstract

The Monks of Athos in Greece constitute a particular group with unusual sleep schedule and specific diet. In order to study the frequency of headache among them, a special questionnaire was designed. Four hundred forty-nine monks below the age of 50 were approached, 39 of whom suffered from frequent (more than one episode per month, in the last 6 months) headaches (8.68%). The prevalence of migraine was 1.78% (0.66% with aura and 1.11% without) and of tension-type headache 3.34% (1.33% chronic and 2% episodic). Furthermore, 1.87% of monks suffered from mixed headaches (tension-type and migraine attacks as well). Cluster headache was not traced.

Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Migraine in Sivas, Turkey

“…Our rates are higher than those that have been reported from Middle East and Far East countries as Malaysia (9%), Japan (8.4%), Saudi Arabia (2.6%), Ethiopia (3%), and Hong Kong (1.5%) 12,15‐19 . They also are higher than those reported from a neighboring country, Greece 27‐29 . These differences suggest that geography, genetic factors, cultural variations, or some combination thereof may be influencing migraine prevalence.…”

Chronic daily headache with analgesic overuse

“…CDH prevalence has also been studied in other, more selected populations. [8][9][10][11] The results in these epidemiologic surveys are, with the exception of a recent study in Norway, 11 very coincidental and confirm that prevalence of CDH, according to the criteria of Silberstein et al, is around 4 to 5% of the general population.…”

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11] One was conducted in Baltimore County, MD, using a validated computerassisted telephone interview with 13,343 randomly selected individuals. 6 We personally interviewed 1,883 randomly selected subjects over 14 years of age in Camargo, Spain.…”

Epidemiology of chronic daily headache

“…Prevalence in Greek monks was 4.4% [20], 2% in a very recent big survey in Norway [21•]. In two recent studies in elderly people CDH prevalence was 3.…”