Background: The most common cause of chronic recurrent headaches without alarming symptoms is migraine. Potential triggers could precipitate acute attacks, and these include stress, specific foods, dehydration, missed meals, or disturbed sleep. Thereby, this study aimed to find the pattern of use, effectiveness, and the satisfaction of patients in Saudi Arabia regarding the abortive and prophylactic treatment of migraine.
Methodology: The study included two steps: the first step was a pre-designed online questionnaire, which included a series of questions about the Saudi patient demographics, migraine history, type, symptoms, severity and triggers, as well as types of medications used as abortive therapy during the episodes, and the prophylactic treatment. The second step was a retrospective cross-sectional study on records of patients admitted to the Headache Clinic of the Neurology Department in King Fahd Specialist Hospital and diagnosed with migraine.
Results: Total 209 participants responded to the online questionnaire in this study. Males had significantly higher satisfaction as compared to the females (p-value = 0.01). Patients aging between 20 and 40 years showed the highest appreciation of medication (p-value = 0.049). Patients who were on beta-blockers or Tricyclic antidepressants showed a higher level of satisfaction (p-value = 0.001), while patients who used prophylactic treatment for more than 12 months were more satisfied with their response as compared to other groups (p-value = 0.002).
Conclusion: Pharmacologic management is still primitive. The preventive approach was also under-utilized. Under-treatment of migraine would affect patients' satisfaction and compliance, and most importantly patients' suffering.
Key words: Migraine, headache, treatment
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