A population-based survey of Americans with frequent migraine and acute medication use: A plain language summary

Summary

What is this summary about?

The Harris Poll Migraine Report Card was a survey about people's experiences and challenges with headaches and migraine. The survey was conducted from December 9, 2021, to January 10, 2022, in the United States. The people who took the survey had frequent headaches/migraine attacks (on 8 or more days per month) and used acute headache/migraine medication to relieve head pain and other symptoms (on 10 or more days per month). This summary focuses on the responses of adults with frequent headaches and frequent acute medication use at the time of the survey or within the few months (not specified) before the survey (and not those who previously had frequent headaches and frequent acute medication use at some point in their life prior to the survey). The group of people who took the survey will be called ‘respondents’. The term ‘headaches’ can mean any type of headache including as part of a migraine attack, a tension type headache, or another unknown headache type. All respondents screened positive for having migraine, so many of the headaches they reported on may have been a migraine headache or part of a migraine attack.

What were the results?

Over 50% of respondents said their headaches affected their overall quality of life. Many respondents wished their healthcare provider who was managing their headaches understood more about how headaches affect their mental well-being, how much pain their headaches cause, and why they get headaches. 80% of respondents had concerns about their overall health. Over 60% of respondents said they have experienced anxiety and/or depression. In this survey, although all respondents were eligible to receive a preventive headache/migraine medication because of their headache frequency, only 15% were taking one.

What do the results of the survey mean?

The findings from this survey showed many ways that headaches/migraine care can improve, including talking about mental and emotional well-being, making sure the treatment plan works and does not have side effects that cannot be tolerated, and trying to prevent headaches/migraine from occurring.

This is an abstract of the Plain Language Summary of Publication article.

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Link to original article here

Financial disclosure

The Harris Poll survey, original research article, and plain language summary publication were sponsored by Lundbeck LLC (Deerfield, IL, United States). A.J. Starling has received consulting fees from AbbVie, Allergan, Amgen, Axsome Therapeutics, Everyday Health, Lundbeck, Med-IQ, Medscape, Neurolief, Satsuma, and WebMD. R. Cady was an employee of Lundbeck LLC at the time of survey development and initiation; has served as a consultant with Biohaven, Haleon, and Lundbeck; and is a current part-time employee of Axon Therapeutics. D.C. Buse has received grant support from Amgen, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the National Headache Foundation; has served as a consultant and received honoraria from Allergan, Amgen/Novartis, Biohaven, Collegium, Eli Lilly, Lundbeck, Teva, and Theranica; and has served on the editorial board of Current Pain and Headache Reports. M. Buzby was an employee of the Coalition for Headache and Migraine Patients at the time of this study, an organization that receives sponsorship support from AbbVie, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Impel, Lundbeck, and Teva. K. Lenaburg was an employee of the Coalition for Headache and Migraine Patients (CHAMP) during the development and fielding of this survey, an organization that receives support from AbbVie, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Impel, Lundbeck, and Teva. In addition, he has received consulting fees from AbbVie, Allergan, Impel, and Lundbeck. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Competing interests disclosure

The authors have no competing interests or relevant affiliations with any organization or entity with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed in the financial disclosure section.

Writing disclosure

Medical writing and editorial assistance in the development of this summary were provided by Julia L. Jones, PhD, Nicole Coolbaugh, CMPP, and Emily Bolen, BS, of The Medicine Group, LLC (New Hope, PA) and sponsored by Lundbeck LLC, Deerfield, IL, USA.