• Arife Çimen Atalar, Manal Bozkurt, Zeynep Çalişkan, Pamela Vo, Mustafa Ertaş, and Betül Baykan.
• Istanbul Education and Research Hospital, Department of Neurology, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Noropsikiyatri Ars. 2021 Jun 1; 58 (2): 115-120.

IntroductionMigraine is a common, chronic neurologic disease which causes serious social and economical disability at both the individual and the community level. The aim of this study was to interpret the data for Turkey from "My Migraine Voice," an online survey of individuals suffering from frequent migraine attacks (≥4 days/month with migraine headaches) who had not benefited from existing prophylactic therapies, conducted in 31 countries to investigate the burden of migraine for the individual and the society.MethodsBased on a set of predetermined criteria (90% of the patients must have used prophylactic therapy, and 80% of them must have needed to change therapy), patients who had ≥ 4 days in a month with migraine headache in the past 3 months were asked to take an online survey of 88 questions. The study included questions aimed at determining the burden of disease during not only the headache phase, but also the prodrome and postdrome phases, as well as a questionnaire for determining the Reduction of Overall Activity and Productivity at Work ((WPAI: GH).ResultsA total of 237 patients from Turkey were included in the study. 62% of the patients stated that they were severely or very severely disabled in their daily activities during the headache phase of migraine, and 31% and 34% of the patients reported that they were disabled during the prodrome and postdrome phases, respectively. 28% of the patients stated they had been receiving prophylactic therapy for more than 2 years, and only 84% of these patients reported complete or partial satisfaction with their current therapies. This value was as low as ~70% in patients in whom 2 or more previous drug treatments or therapies had failed. Actively-working patients reported that they had lost 21% of their time at work due to migraine, and the overall loss of workforce was 67%.ConclusionThis study showed that migraine can cause disability in an individual's private and professional lives during every stage of migraine, including the prodrome and postdrome phases. This finding will be important for designing future treatments aimed at enhancing the quality of life and productivity of patients who cannot adequately benefit from existing therapies.Copyright: © 2021 Turkish Neuropsychiatric Society.

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