What Patients Want From Medication and Their Physicians
What Patients Want From Medication and Their Physicians
Objective: To document the results of a migraine patients survey, from a headache specialty clinic, in which patients were asked to rank, in order of importance, certain characteristics of migraine preventive treatment.
Methods: A 10-question survey was completed by 150 patients (114 females and 36 males) with a history of migraine who presented to the Michigan Head Pain & Neurological Institute. The patients were asked to rank, in order of importance, characteristics of migraine preventive treatment. Each characteristic was rated individually on a 1 to 10 scale (1 being of little importance and 10 being extremely important). The mean rating of each characteristic was then calculated and the results analyzed.
Results/Discussion: From this migraine preventive treatment survey, the most important thing to migraineurs, from a headache specialty clinic population, is that the prescribing physician involves them in the decision making of choosing a preventive agent. The physician taking time to explain the possible medication side effects is the second most highly ranked characteristic. Migraine preventives with published efficacy in the medical literature are also deemed very important. Migraineurs do not mind using more than 1 preventive agent at one time if greater efficacy can be achieved. Agents that may affect weight and /or cause sedation may be important factors as to why patients (especially females) may not want to take a preventive medication. Natural therapies and once-daily dosing are ranked lower overall but still are important characteristics of preventive treatment. Some gender differences are noted in the ranking of migraine preventive characteristics.
Migraine is no longer considered just an episodic condition but rather a chronic disease state that can start early in a patient's lifetime and last until late in life. Epidemiologic data from the United States suggest that preventive medication may be indicated for a large proportion of those with migraine (about 50%) based on headache frequency and headache-related disability, but only about 10% of those individuals are receiving preventive therapy. A recently published population-based study from France found that only 6% of the survey subjects had been prescribed migraine preventive treatment, whereas 22% had a Migraine Disability Assessment Scale grade III or IV, indicating moderate to severe disability caused by migraine. The reason why migraine patients are not receiving migraine prevention may be lack of recognition of migraine-related disability by physicians, but there is also a barrier created by the patient to taking daily medication. The goal of this study was to try to better understand what patients want from their preventive medication so that physicians may be more successful at providing migraine prevention for individuals who need it.
Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Objective: To document the results of a migraine patients survey, from a headache specialty clinic, in which patients were asked to rank, in order of importance, certain characteristics of migraine preventive treatment.
Methods: A 10-question survey was completed by 150 patients (114 females and 36 males) with a history of migraine who presented to the Michigan Head Pain & Neurological Institute. The patients were asked to rank, in order of importance, characteristics of migraine preventive treatment. Each characteristic was rated individually on a 1 to 10 scale (1 being of little importance and 10 being extremely important). The mean rating of each characteristic was then calculated and the results analyzed.
Results/Discussion: From this migraine preventive treatment survey, the most important thing to migraineurs, from a headache specialty clinic population, is that the prescribing physician involves them in the decision making of choosing a preventive agent. The physician taking time to explain the possible medication side effects is the second most highly ranked characteristic. Migraine preventives with published efficacy in the medical literature are also deemed very important. Migraineurs do not mind using more than 1 preventive agent at one time if greater efficacy can be achieved. Agents that may affect weight and /or cause sedation may be important factors as to why patients (especially females) may not want to take a preventive medication. Natural therapies and once-daily dosing are ranked lower overall but still are important characteristics of preventive treatment. Some gender differences are noted in the ranking of migraine preventive characteristics.
Introduction
Migraine is no longer considered just an episodic condition but rather a chronic disease state that can start early in a patient's lifetime and last until late in life. Epidemiologic data from the United States suggest that preventive medication may be indicated for a large proportion of those with migraine (about 50%) based on headache frequency and headache-related disability, but only about 10% of those individuals are receiving preventive therapy. A recently published population-based study from France found that only 6% of the survey subjects had been prescribed migraine preventive treatment, whereas 22% had a Migraine Disability Assessment Scale grade III or IV, indicating moderate to severe disability caused by migraine. The reason why migraine patients are not receiving migraine prevention may be lack of recognition of migraine-related disability by physicians, but there is also a barrier created by the patient to taking daily medication. The goal of this study was to try to better understand what patients want from their preventive medication so that physicians may be more successful at providing migraine prevention for individuals who need it.
Source...