Background: There are limited Canadian data on
the impact of migraine on quality of life, economic, and societal burden.
Therefore, the aim of this study was to characterize the humanistic and
economic burden of illness of migraine in Canada.
Methods:Retrospective medical chart
review and prospective patient survey were used to evaluate the
clinical, social, and economic burden of migraine in patients who failed
at least two prior prophylactic
therapies.Results: 287 migraine
patients were included. High- frequency episodic migraine (8 to 14 MMDs) and
chronic migraine (15+ MMDs) made up the majority of the cohort (35.2% and
35.9%, respectively). 72.8% of the patients had underlying comorbidities 78%
indicated that they experienced severe disability on their daily life due to
their headaches. The total estimated annual cost of chronic migraine was
$25,669 per patient while high-frequency episodic and low-frequency episodic
migraine was associated with an annual cost of $24,885 and $15,651 per
patient respectively. Conclusions: This study
provides a recent and comprehensive assessment of the burden of illness
associated with migraine in Canada and showed that migraine is associated
with a substantial humanistic and economic burden for patients and
healthcare systems.
Multi-national retrospective chart review studies: Lessons learned from application of methodology to international evaluations of burden of illness and drug utilization and safety
