Taking Headache Seriously, UK

Main Category: Headache / Migraine
Article Date: 05 Mar 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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A new survey conducted by Headache UK indicates that as many as 65% of migraine and headache sufferers have not found a satisfactory regime to manage their condition. And of those who responded to the survey, 28% feel that medical service providers around the UK are not at all well informed and well equipped to provide useful advice on the long term treatment of migraine and headaches.

A new Headache UK Position Paper on services in the UK will be discussed at a reception at the House of Commons hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group On Primary Headache Disorders on 4 March 2008. At the reception, attendees will also hear from medical experts and sufferers about how services could and should be improved throughout the UK.

More than 10 million people around the UK suffer regularly from migraine or other headaches, with headaches accounting for approximately 20% of absenteeism from the workplace. An estimated 190,000 people have a migraine attack every day around the UK, and more than 100,000 people are absent from work or school every day as a result of migraine. The cost to the economy of this absenteeism may exceed £1.5 billion a year. On average, each person who suffers from migraine will be absent from work for more than half a day every four weeks. Additionally, he or she will probably work for 12 hours a month while suffering from migraine, during which time they may well be much less effective and engaged than usual. Migraine and other headaches also severely affect the quaility of people's social and personal lives.

Responses to the Headache UK survey included these comments from respondents:

"Finding [ways] of coping is a very big source of stress, as I am doing badly at university because I can't prevent the migraines."

"There is no effective treatment that I have found, and no drugs that work. I have taken time off work, but the biggest cost to my life is having to spend a day/two days in bed and missing life."

"I was diagnosed at the age of seven with hemiplegic migraine, and 24 years later I am still struggling to manage my condition. My life is totally controlled by my condition and it is totally frustrating being unable to reach my true potential."

And

"There is no `managing' my condition. I have to live with it daily. Migraine can be so severe that it affects you every day…If you find an answer, let me know!"

Headache UK is an alliance of expert and patient support groups, seeking to provide better services for people whose lives are so compromised by migraine and other headaches. For more information about Headache UK.

Headache UK
Migraine Trust