------Quality of life also suffers, study shows

By E'Louise Ondash
　　HealthSCOUT Reporter
　　WEDNESDAY, Sept. 13 (HealthSCOUT) -- Ask migraine sufferers about their headaches and they'll tell you they are about more than just the pain; migraines cloud all aspects of their lives.

That's what researchers in the United States, United Kingdom and the Netherlands learned recently when they asked migraine sufferers about their quality of life.

"The studies capture not just the burden of migraine during attack, but in between attacks," explains Dr. Richard B. Lipton, lead author of the U.S./U.K. study. "What people don't recognize is that those with migraine attacks live in fear daily of not knowing when the next attack will be. Our study, taken together with the Dutch study, shows that people with migraines have a reduced quality of life."

The studies appear in the journal Neurology.

The far-reaching impact of migraines may not be news to the 28 million sufferers in the United States, but it is the first time researchers have looked at the complete picture, Lipton says.

Both studies questioned the general public and included migraine sufferers who had not yet been seen by a doctor. People were asked about their quality of life -- including their ability to fulfill social and emotional commitments - as well as how they viewed their general health. The 768 people in the U.S./U.K. study were asked about emotional limitations, as well as physical activities such as moving a table, playing golf and visiting friends.

Lipton found that 47 percent of his study's 389 migraine sufferers experienced depression, compared to only 17 percent of people who never had migraines. Previous research shows that migraine and depression are linked, but they have independent causes.

"If you are being treated for one, don't forget to mention the other," Lipton advises. "People with depression are prone to pain, but when both occur, it's important to recognize and treat them separately."

These studies "really tell us that migraine is a double whammy," says Dr. Stephen Silberstein, professor of neurology at Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. "They tells us that migraine is really devastating, and that the conditions associated with migraine are devastating."

The Dutch study also compared the migraine patients with patients suffering from asthma and chronic musculoskeletal pain. Those with migraines consistently rated their quality of life lower in the mental and social areas, but higher in the physical aspects. Almost 6,000 people were part of the Dutch study. Of these, 620 had had migraines in the previous year.

"The point of this study is that migraine is not just a headache," says Lenore Launer, lead author of the Dutch study. "The problem is that migraine sufferers also have difficulty in managing everyday affairs, and that there are problems in social and emotional functioning that don't necessarily get picked up when doctors talks to patients about their headache histories."

Overall, women are four times more likely than men to suffer from migraines, Launer says. In the Dutch study, at least 50 percent of those who had migraines had them at least 12 times a year.

(From HealthSCOUT)