• Dimos D Mitsikostas, Ioanna Belesioti, Chryssa Arvaniti, Euthymia Mitropoulou, Christina Deligianni, Elina Kasioti, Theodoros Constantinidis, Manolis Dermitzakis, Michail Vikelis, and Hellenic Headache Society.
• First Neurology Department, Aeginition Hospital, School of Medicine, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, 72-74 V. Sofias' Avenue, 11528, Athens, Greece. dmitsikostas@med.uoa.gr.
• J Headache Pain. 2017 Oct 6; 18 (1): 102.

BackgroundWe aimed to explore patients' preferences for headache treatments with a self-administered questionnaire including the Q-No questionnaire for nocebo.MethodsQuestionnaires from 514 outpatients naïve to neurostimulation and monoclonal antibodies were collected.ResultsPatients assessed that the efficacy of a treatment is more important than safety or route of administration. They preferred to use an external neurostimulation device for both acute (67.1%) and preventive treatment (62.8%). Most patients preferred to take a pill (86%) than any other drug given parenterally for symptomatic pharmaceutical treatment. For preventive pharmaceutical treatment, most patients preferred to take a pill once per day (52%) compared to an injection either subcutaneously or intravenously each month (9% and 4%), or three months (15% and 11%). 56.6% of all participants scored more than 15 in Q-No questionnaire indicating potential nocebo behaviors that contributed significantly in their choices.ConclusionThese patient preferences along with efficacy and safety data may help physicians better choose the right treatment for the right person.

37 keywords...

hide…