Measuring Migraine Impact

Filed in archive General Health on March 3, 2007

Migraines are no fun. Anyone who has experienced the horrific pain, the nausea, and the blinding aura of a migraine attack will vouch for that. But how about the effect of migraine when the sufferer is not actually having an attack?

This is called interictal burden. Medical News Today tells us that there may be a way to measure this problem:

According to new data presented at the National Headache Foundation's Fourth Annual Headache Research Summit, the newly developed Migraine Interictal Burden Scale (MIBS) is the first tool designed to measure the interictal burden that may be associated with migraine. When used in clinical practice, the MIBS can help healthcare professionals better understand how migraine might disrupt their patients' daily activities when they are not experiencing an attack,

My Migraine Connection.com tells us:

Anxiety (particularly panic disorders) and major depression are strongly associated with migraines. In the December 19, 2003, issue of Psychiatric News, researchers reported that postmenopausal women with a history of migraine with aura were more than six times as likely to experience a full-blown panic attack as compared to those without migraine.

The article in Medical News Today discusses this more fully:

"Patients reported feeling frustrated, guilty about missing family or work activities, and helpless because their headaches controlled their lives. We are currently tailoring the MIBS for use in clinicians' offices, to help them improve communication with patients about the impact of migraine and to assist them in creating comprehensive treatment plans."