Treatment gaps in migraine preventive treatment-eligible patients: A hospital-based study in Thailand

Abstract

Background: Preventive treatment of migraine is necessary for patients with frequent attacks to avoid progression and medication overuse. Only a few studies have demonstrated the low prevalence of preventive- eligible migraine patients having received migraine preventive treatments.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of preventive migraine treatments in eligible patients in Thailand.

Methods: A hospital registry-based cross-sectional study was conducted between January 2007 and June 2022 in migraine patients at the Chulalongkorn Comprehensive Headache Center, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, and Thai Red Cross Society. Data collected at the first visit were extracted from the patient registry. The proportion of preventive treatments among patients with variable migraine severity classified by the number of monthly migraine days was evaluated.

Results: Of the 681 patients in the registry, 572 aged ³15 years were included. The prevalence of patients with a history of ever using migraine preventive treatment was 14.7%. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of receiving preventive treatment among the patients with variable migraine severity classified by the number of migraine days per month. Among the treatment-eligible participants, the prevalence of preventive treatment was 12.9%.

Conclusion: This was the first hospital-based study in any Eastern country that revealed a prevailing low prevalence of preventive treatments among migraine patients. Preventive treatment is critical to migraine progression. Health education on existing preventive treatments is needed to raise awareness among patients. More relevant studies are needed in Asian countries to replicate these findings. To improve the scientific quality of relevant studies, future research should be conducted by gathering data from primary sources and retrieving previous treatments from medical records.