Estimating the Savings of a Migraine Free Life: Results from the Spanish Atlas

Background: Migraine is a common and costly neurological disorder. The aim of this study was to quantify the costs of chronic (CM) and episodic migraine (EM) in Spain, evaluating the impact of psychiatric comorbidities and disability, and estimate the economic savings of reducing the number of migraine days by 50%.

Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional analysis of data from migraine patients who participated in the Spanish Migraine Atlas. The participants were invited to complete a structured questionnaire including the following scales: Headache Needs Assessment (HANA), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADs), and Migraine Disability Assessment Scale (MIDAS).

Results: 475 patients were included, 187 with CM (39.4%). Total costs per patient/year were: €16,578.2 ±€34,568.1 for CM and €6,227.8 ±€6,515.7 for EM. Moreover, a higher degree of disability according to MIDAS scale significantly increases the total cost of migraine, while the presence of psychiatric comorbidity increase costs for EM patients only.

The reduction of one migraine day per month decreases average total costs by €744.14 per patient/year for EM and €663.20 per patient/year for CM, while reducing by 50% the number of migraine days, the economic savings would be €2,232.44 per patient/year (R2 =0.927) for EM and €6,631.99 per patient/year (R2 =0.886) for CM.

Conclusions: The costs associated with migraine are driven by migraine frequency and the degree of disability, while psychiatric comorbidity only influences the cost of EM patients. These results highlight the need to optimise migraine management to reduce the economic migraine burden. Future studies are needed to confirm our results.

CITATION  Eur J Neurol. 2020 Dec;27(12):2616-2624.
doi: 10.1111/ene.14431. Epub 2020 Aug 8.