By Eliza Bussey
BETHESDA, Md., Jun 09 (Reuters Health) - More than 45 million Americans
experience chronic headaches, and 23 million have migraines. Each year, migraine
sufferers lose over 157 million workdays because of headache pain. But studies
show that only about 5% of migraine patients receive drugs that can prevent
these debilitating headaches.
"I see a major gap between treatments now available and the public's
knowledge of those treatments," said Dr. Richard Lipton, a neurologist at Albert
Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. "Due to the numbers of
people that suffer from migraines and its physical and financial impact, I would
say it is a major public health problem."
At a press conference Thursday, Lipton and other migraine experts discussed
social barriers that keep many people from seeking help, and the importance of
seeking treatments for migraine early on.
"When I first started practicing neurology, the notion was that migraines
were a disease of neurotic women. Now of course, we have PET scans and MRIs that
can pinpoint the area of abnormality that occurs three times more often in women
than men," said the conference panel leader Dr. K. Michael Welch of the
University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.
Due to the wide spectrum of symptoms, including auras, nausea, pain and
sensitivity to light, and the causes of the headaches (ranging from alcohol
consumption, sunlight, missed meals, MSG, hormones or stress, and genetics),
physicians suggest therapy should be tailor-made.
"Nonprescription drugs work for mild headaches, while more specific drugs
like ergot alkaloids and triptans, can be used to stop migraine attacks, and the
point here is to make use of them," said Dr. Stephen Silberstein, director of
the Jefferson Headache Clinic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Silberstein advised physicians and consumers to "become more familiar with
the symptoms of migraine" by logging on to the American Academy of Neurology's
Web site at http://www.aan.com. The site offers the latest information on the
causes and treatments for migraines.
The National Headache Foundation's Web site at http://www.headaches.org
offers more information on headache and migraine treatment.
