By Paul Candon, Medical Tribune News Service
More people are going to the doctor because of migraines than in
years past, according to a study in the October 22 issue of the
journal Neurology. Although the numbers are increasing for both
sexes, women especially seem to be experiencing more migraines.
The researchers, led by Dr. W.A. Rocca of the department of
neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., studied health
records of people reporting headache problems from 1979 to 1981 and
1989 to 1990 in Olmsted County, Minn. They decided which cases met
the standard definition of migraine headaches, and counted only
people who consulted doctors, seeking treatment for new, not
recurrent, migraines.
Over the years studied, the number of women reporting new cases
of migraines increased by 56 percent (from 309 to 482 per 100,000
women). The increase was seen mainly in women ages 10 to 49, with
those from 20 to 29 having the overall highest number of migraines
(986 per 100,000, up from 634).
Men in the study fared somewhat better. They had less of an
increase over the course of the decade, from 146 to 194 per
100,000, an increase of 33 percent. Men ages 10 to 19 had the
highest increases, from 197 to 372 new cases per 100,000, an
increase of almost 89 percent.
The reasons for these increases are uncertain. In the past, many
people thought migraines were not a legitimate disease. But now,
``with the decreased stigmatization of migraine, patients may be
more willing to see and talk to their physician,'' said Dr. Kenneth
Moore, the staff neurologist at the Diamond Headache Clinic in
Chicago. Moore was not involved in the Neurology study.
``Physician attitudes and education may have changed so that
they're detecting more patients who have migraine, rather than just
writing them off as another crock,'' said Moore. He added that
there most likely has been a genuine increase in the prevalence of
migraine, not just an increase in detection.
``One of the major triggers for migraine is stress,'' said
Moore. ``And I think that the increase in incidence prevalence of
migraine in recent years is probably related to social changes,''
particularly as they relate to women.
Typically, men are less likely to experience migraines than
women. The incidence for young boys and girls is the same, Moore
explained, until puberty, when hormonal factors presumably make
women more prone to migraines.
The authors of the study pointed out that the numbers of women
in households with no husband, divorced women, working women and
single mothers all increased over the course of the 1980s. They
also added that severe dieting and use of the artificial sweetener
aspartame can trigger migraines in predisposed persons. All these
factors could have contributed to a sharper rise in women seeking
migraine treatment, the authors speculated.
Migraines are intense, periodic and throbbing headaches. Most
migraines involve pain on one side of the head, but at times can
affect both sides. They occur when blood vessels to the brain
constrict and then widen, activating pain receptors in the head.
