Prevalence, management and burden of episodic and chronic headaches—a cross-sectional multicentre study in eight Austrian headache centres

The Journal of Headache and Pain

Research Article

Colette Andree¹  Sonja-Maria Obmann²  Anita Lechner³  Gregor Broessner⁴  Christian Wöber⁵  Karin Zebenholzer⁵  Klaus Berek⁶  Christian Lampl⁷  Albert Wuschitz⁸  Gernot Luthringshausen⁹ 

[1] CRP Santé, Strassen, Luxemburg;University Basle Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Basel, Switzerland;Department of Neurology, Klinikum Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria;Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria;Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria;Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria;Department of Neurology, a.ö. KH Kufstein, Kufstein, Austria;Headache Centre Seilerstätte, Hospital Sisters of Charity Linz, Linz, Austria;Neurological Office Vienna, Vienna, Austria;University Clinic of Neurology, Christian-Doppler-Klinik Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria;

关键词: Episodic headache;    Chronic headache;    Migraine;    Medication overuse headache;    Prophylactic treatment;    Health care service;    Quality of life;    Burden;    Anxiety;    Depression;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s10194-015-0531-7

 received in 2015-03-23, accepted in 2015-05-10,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundEpisodic and chronic headaches (EH, CH) are highly prevalent disorders. Severely affected patients are usually referred to headache centres. In Austria, at least one headache centre is available in seven of nine states, but detailed multicentre data are missing. Therefore we studied prevalence rates, use of medication and health care services, impact of headaches, and comorbid depression and anxiety.MethodsWe included consecutive patients from eight Austrian outpatient headache centres. The patients filled-in the Eurolight questionnaire. In addition, the treating neurologist completed a questionnaire on clinical diagnoses and ever-before prophylactic medications.ResultsOf 598 patients screened, 441 questionnaires were analysed (79 % female, mean age 41.1 years). According to the Eurolight algorithm, 56.4 % of the patients had EH, 38.3 % had CH and 5.2 % did not give their headache frequency. The prevalence rates of migraine, tension-type headache, and probable medication overuse headache (pMOH) were 48.5 %, 6.3 % and 15.9 %, respectively. The concordance between clinical and Eurolight diagnoses was good for EH and moderate for CH. During the preceding month, acute medication was used by 90.9 % of the patients and prophylactic medication by 34 %. Ever-before use of five standard prophylactic drugs was recorded in 52.3 %. The proportion of patients with current pharmacoprophylaxis did not differ in EH and CH, whereas ever-before use was more common in CH (62.5 % was 45,3 %, p = 0.02). Patients with CH significantly more often consulted general practitioners and emergency departments, had a lower quality of life and more often signs of depression and anxiety.ConclusionThis study provides comprehensive data from eight Austrian headache centres for the first time. We found a substantial number of patients with CH including pMOH and its association with more common utilization of health care facilities and greater burden. The low use of prophylactic medication requires further examination.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Zebenholzer et al.; licensee Springer. 2015. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.