Headache Resources

Headache disorders are more than “just a headache.”

Ranging from migraine, cluster headache, and spinal CSF leak, to new daily persistent headache and tension-type headache, headache disorders are common, affecting up to 46% of the worldwide adult population.

Yang S, Orlova Y, Lipe A, Boren M, Hincapie-Castillo JM, Park H, Chang C-Y, Wilson DL, Adkins L, Lo-Ciganic W-H. Trends in the Management of Headache Disorders in US Emergency Departments: Analysis of 2007–2018 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Data. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2022; 11(5):1401.

Migraine is the 2nd leading cause of US disability and yet there is no Social Security Blue Book listing for migraine. More than 40 million Americans have migraine or severe headache.

GBD 2016. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet 2017;390:1211-59.

Significant disparities in prevalence and health outcomes exist for some patients. For example, Indigenous communities have the highest prevalence of disabling headache.

Burch R, et al. Headache. 2021;61:60-68.

Migraine is 3 to 4x more prevalent in women, and the longstanding history of women’s diseases being ignored and stigmatized may play a factor as to why they are not taken as seriously.

Al-Hassany L, Haas J, Piccininni M, Kurth T, Maassen Van Den Brink A, Rohmann JL. Giving Researchers a Headache – Sex and Gender Differences in Migraine. Front Neurol. 2020 Oct 22;11:549038. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2020.549038. PMID: 33192977; PMCID: PMC7642465.

African American and Hispanic patients are respectively 25% and 50% less likely to be diagnosed with migraine compared to white patients even though their prevalence of migraine is roughly equivalent.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/health-disparities-and-headache-treatment- 202202152685#:~:text=Although%20the%20frequency%20of%20migraine,migraine%20compared%20to%20white%20patients.

Cluster headache is widely reputed to be the most severe pain that humans can experience.

Burish, M.J., Pearson, S.M., R.E. Shapiro, et al. Cluster Headache Is One of the Most Intensely Painful Human Conditions: Results From the International Cluster Headache Questionnaire. Headache 2021;61:117-124.

Severe headache accounts for approximately 3.5 million emergency department visits per year in the US.

US companies lose approximately $78 billion annually due to direct and indirect costs of migraine which primarily impact workers during their most productive years of life. The impairment caused by acute headache attacks is often, though not always, easily mitigated with effective treatment; as such, headache disorders represent the most readily reversible form of work loss.

https://migraineatwork.org/articles_migraine/how-much-does-migrainecost/#:~: text=According%20to%20the%20Harvard%20Business,direct%20and%20indirect%20costs%204%20.