Migraine is a neurological disease that affects approximately 15% of the world’s population. In France, it concerns around eleven million people (16% of the population). Migraine attacks are manifested (most often) by pulsatile pain located at the level of the temple, nausea, vomiting, as well as “increased sensitivity to light, noise and smells. Very disabling symptoms on a daily basis. The global international study Burden of Disease also establishes that migraine is the second most disabling cause in adults years, after lumbar pain. However, the impact of this patient’s daily life is still underestimated … including by health professionals, as demonstrated by a recent survey carried out in France with more than 680 migrainers by the Migraine Voice.
Three times more women affected
Migraine is a disease that affects women about three times more than men. The migraine crises (whose causes are sometimes multifactorial) are in 60% of cases of catamenial origin, that is to say caused by the fall of estrogens at the time of the rules. This partly explains why this disease concerns women more than men. Especially since it occurs in other major periods of hormonal upheaval in these: puberty, pregnancy and menopause.
But hormonal variations are not the only factor. Several research has shown that chronic stress, notably linked to the mental load linked to domestic and family tasks (which is still incumbent upon women) is likely to increase the frequency of crises.
Seven years of medical wandering
“”A obstacle course“. It is in these terms that migraine patients interviewed in the study published last April by the French association The votes of migrainers evoke their medical journey. On average, medical wandering (delay between the appearance of the first crises and the establishment of a formal medical diagnosis and/or obtaining a treatment) for these patients is 7.5 years. The participants explain that they have consulted on average 2.7 health professionals. Elsewhere, more than half of the participants confide that they do not feel listened to or supported by health professionals.
Twenty million work days lost
In addition to having a real impact on social and family life, migraine also has repercussions on professional life. According to the survey carried out for the migraine voice, 55% of patients had to stop working for more than 21 days over the last three months.
A major brake in professional life which also has a financial cost: the French neurology federation estimates that nearly twenty million working days are lost because of migraine. According to the Federation, annual health expenses linked to the absenteeism of migraine patients amount to nearly three billion euros.