Migraine Sufferers… When Are Yours Worse?

December 8th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Enter the December How to Cope with Pain contest!

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Do you experience migraine headaches? If so, how does your experience fit with these statistics?

woman with headache

24% of migraines start before work, 46% at work, and 9% after work
70% of people went to work even if they had a migraine, 15% didn’t go, and 11% went in late
If they got a migraine at work, 77% stayed at work, while 23% came home
Do your migraines affect work performance? 73% said ‘yes’
Of these 73% whose work is affected by migraines, 74% reported productivity below 80%, while 39% said it fell below 60%

Overall, the researchers concluded that most migraines occur before or during work, and migraines affect work performance in most people. How does this fit with your experience?

The study is by Stewart, Wood and Razzaghi, et al, Work Impact of Migraine Headaches, in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2008, Vol 50, 736-745.

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Tags: Uncategorized

1 response so far ↓

Alison // Dec 9, 2008 at 8:11 am

Great article, many thanks for sharing that with us all, I found it really informative.

I suffer from Migraines quite a lot and I believe most of mine are caused by the pain condition, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome that I suffer from. I have never had headaches or migraines until I developed CRPS, then they all semt to come at one go! I tend to find that my migraines are worse when I am in a lot of pain and I always tend to feel light-headed with them.

Stress also makes things worse for me. I try to avoid stressful situations as much as possible although of course, there will always be something that makes you pretty stressed and frustrated.

Thanks again for posting this interesting research article – I found it very interesting and am sure others will too.