Quality‐of‐Life Differences Between Patients With Episodic and Transformed Migraine

Abstract

The results of this study suggest that patients with transformed migraine have a lower health-related quality of life than patients with migraine. These findings indicate that the headache chronicity associated with transformed migraine has a significant influence on quality of life. The results highlight the importance of effective management of headaches to avoid the progression of migraine to the more disabling transformed migraine.

The impact of headache on quality of life

“…Meletiche et al [20] concluded that patients with transformed migraine had a lower HRQoL than patients with episodic migraine and suggested that headache chronicity associated with transformed migraine had a significant influence on HRQoL. Comorbidity and confounding by depression were not investigated in this study.…”

“…To investigate specifically whether there are HRQoL differences between patients with episodic migraine and those with transformed migraine, Meletiche et al [20] investigated 90 patients (46 with transformed migraine, 44 with episodic migraine) with the SF-36 questionnaire [20]. Over the last 90 days prior to their first visit, patient with transformed migraine reported having a headache significantly more often compared with patients with migraine (69 days and 18 days, respectively).…”

Diagnosis, pathophysiology and management of chronic migraine: a proposal of the Belgian Headache Society

“…A pattern thus emerges that EM and CM not only differ in the degree of headache frequency or severity, but diagnostic vigilance is warranted with respect to psychiatric and medical comorbidities which may further increase disability [11], reduce quality of life [15] and inflate healthcare costs [16].…”

Application of behavioral therapies in adult and adolescent patients with chronic migraine

“…In the AMPP study [9], CM was found to be highest among females, in mid-life, and in households with the lowest annual income. Relative to EM patients, individuals with CM had greater headache-related disability [13,14], lower socio-economic status [15], poorer health-related quality of life [16], and higher direct and indirect costs [17]. Other studies have noted that CM populations have been found to have higher rates of a variety of co-morbid conditions (psychiatric disorders, pain states, respiratory illness, and disease associated with cardiac risk) [18]; greater polypharmacy and social impediments [19]; and post-traumatic stress disorder [20].…”