Migraine Impacts Quality of Life
Who's Affected and How?

Before we take a closer look at prevention, it's important to understand the impact that migraine has on individuals and society. About 29.5 million Americans have migraine. Anyone can be a migraineur, but a woman's chance of having migraine is about three times that of a man's. Even though the number of attacks a person has can vary widely, most sufferers have about three attacks every month.

Migraine can be a severe and often times disabling biological disease. According to the recently updated American Migraine Study:

• 8 out of 10 migraine sufferers (80 percent) have severe or extremely severe attacks.
• 1 out of 4 migraineurs (24 percent) has sought emergency room care as a result of an attack.
• More than half of patients (51 percent) say that migraine attacks cut their work and/or school productivity at least 50 percent.
• Two thirds of people with migraine (66 percent) say migraine attacks reduce their housework productivity by at least 50 percent.
• Four out of ten patients (39 percent) say migraine drives them to their beds sometimes for days at a time. Earlier research found that migraine attacks caused Americans to spend about 112 million days in bed in 1998 alone.

In general, the migraine experience is different for men and women, as well as for older and younger people. Overall, women say migraine keeps them in bed more often than men. Women also tend to stay in bed longer with a migraine than men do. Similarly, younger people are more likely to miss work or school and to seek bed rest than older people. But when an attack sends them to bed, older people usually stay longer than younger people.

In addition to the negative impact on quality of life, migraine has a significant economic cost. For every dollar spent on migraine in 1999, about 60 cents went for visits to medical professionals. Drug costs also account for a large part of migraine's economic toll; prescription drug costs for migraine were about $300 million in 1999. Although significant, these costs are dwarfed by the "indirect" costs of the disease. When you factor in things like lost workdays and decreased performance on the job, the cost to the US economy rises to around $13 billion a year.

Given its high cost to society, it shouldn't be surprising that migraine can have a serious impact on a person's overall quality of life. Everyday activities that most people take for granted suddenly become unbearable. Even if you are able to make it to work or school with a migraine, you may not be able to function as well as you normally do. In some cases, just spending quality time with family or friends is impossible due to the pain and discomfort caused by the condition.