Unmasking COVID-19 Headaches in Healthcare Professionals: Phenotypic Continuity Across Infection, Reinfection, Vaccination and Post-COVID

Headache is a common symptom during SARS-CoV-2 infection and may persist beyond three months. Both tension-type and migraine-like headaches have been described during SARS-CoV-2 infection and after immunization. The main objective was to characterize headache phenotype during SARS-CoV-2 infection and its relationship with headache recurrence following reinfection and COVID-19 vaccination in a cohort of healthcare professionals. Secondary aims included profiling primary headaches and identifying predictors of post-COVID-19 headache persistence. We included 109 participants (86.2% women, mean age 45.3 ± 2.5 years). During infection, 49.5% met ICHD-3 criteria for tension-type headache and 12.8% for migraine. Headache recurred in 62.5% after reinfection and 59.2% after vaccination. A primary-headache history was present in 77.9% of sampled patients (25.9% migraine, 47.1% tension-type). The COVID-19 headache phenotype typically mirrored patients’ previous headache type during reinfection and post-vaccination. Persistent headache beyond three months from SARS-CoV-2 infection occurred in 22.9% and was associated with fibromyalgia and obesity. These findings suggest that COVID-19-related headache often mirrors the patient’s pre-existing primary headache and tends to recur with the same phenotype following reinfection or vaccination.