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How Does Migraine Change After 10 Years? A Clinical Cohort Follow‐Up Analysis
Author(s) -
Caronna Edoardo,
Gallardo Victor José,
Fonseca Elena,
GómezGalván Juan Bernardo,
Alpuente Alicia,
TorresFerrus Marta,
PozoRosich Patricia
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
headache: the journal of head and face pain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.14
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1526-4610
pISSN - 0017-8748
DOI - 10.1111/head.13774
Subject(s) - migraine , medicine , cohort , cohort study , pediatrics , longitudinal study , pathology
Objective To describe the 10‐year evolution of a cohort of migraine patients, focusing on prognostic factors of improvement. Background Migraine is one of the most prevalent and disabling diseases and migraineurs often want to know about the evolutionary timeline of their condition. Yet, data from longitudinal studies with a long‐term follow‐up is scarce. Methods This is a 10‐year longitudinal study. In 2008, we recruited 1109 consecutive migraine patients who answered an initial survey. In 2018, we did a follow‐up. We compared initial and final (after 10 years) data. A reduction ≥50% in Headache days/month was considered as improvement. A comparative study was carried out to identify predictors of improvement or no improvement. Results After 10 years, 380 patients completed the survey (34.3% of the initial cohort), 77.1% (293/380) were women; mean age 41.0 ± 10.6 years and 73.7% (280/380) had an initial diagnosis of episodic migraine (EM). After 10 years, 48.2% (183/380) of patients did not have a medical follow‐up of their migraine; 47.4% (180/380) decreased ≥50% in frequency, which increased the proportion of EM (73.7% vs 87.4%) ( P < .001) as compared to the initial results. Factors independently associated with improvement were: a baseline frequency >10 days/month (OR[95%]: 3.04 [1.89, 4.89]; P < .001), nonsmoking (2.13 [1.23, 3.67]; P = .006) and a medical follow‐up for migraine (2.45 [1.54, 3.90]; P < .001). Additionally, after 10 years, we observed a reduction in the use of preventive treatment (48.7% vs 23.5%) and an increase in monotherapy (42.2% vs 72.7%) ( P < .001). Conclusion After 10 years, in almost half of the patients who answered the survey, migraine improved. Other than the natural pathophysiology of migraine, having a medical follow‐up and healthy habits such as nonsmoking were independent factors associated with improvement.