Introduction: Migraine causes problems of public health and work.
Objectives: To describe the pharmaco economic impact of migraine in Colombia.
Patients and methods: The sample group was made up of patients aged between 18 and 65 years diagnosed as having migraine according to the criteria of the International Headache Society. We made a descriptive study of migraine in Colombian patients recruited from five international multicentric clinical trials who responded to a questionnaire on: 1. Frequency of migraine attacks. 2. Days or hours of work lost through migraine. 3. Requests for health services. 4. Occupation of participants. For the statistical analysis we used descriptive techniques of resumption of frequencies, and also non parametric statistics in order to describe how their work was affected.
Results: 82% of the patients complained of from one to four migraine attacks per month. 64% considered that migraine had adversely affected between one and twenty hours of work per month. No differences were seen between paid and unpaid work. 15% of the patients lost more than one day of paid work and 36% more than one day of unpaid work in the month prior to the questionnaire. 52% of the patients requested at least one medical consultation for migraine during the year of the questionnaire; 42% consulted the emergency services at least once and 43% did not consult the health services at all.
Conclusions: These epidemiological and socio economic data are important for a rational approach to the implementation of health resources and to assure effective management of the disorder.