Headache-related quality of life lagged in adults with long COVID

Key takeaways:

• Fatigue-related quality of life and number of headache days improved after a median of 25.82 months.
• No significant difference was reported in quality of life related to anxiety and depression.

BOSTON — Headache-related quality of life lagged clinical improvement in headaches for individuals with long COVID at 12 to 19 months, according to a poster from the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting.

“It helps to understand what the risks of long COVID are for patients who may previously suffer from headache in order to monitor and treat these patients in a way that is most efficient,” Sara Hyman, a research coordinator in the department of neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told Healio. “It helps to better understand the follow-up treatment needs of patients with past headache.”

Hyman and colleagues sought to document headache symptoms and recovery of non-hospitalized individuals with long COVID 12 to 19 months after a baseline evaluation.

They conducted phone interviews with 46 adults (mean age, 51.06 years; 63.04% women; 73.91% non-Hispanic white) with headache symptoms lasting for more than 6 weeks, who were referred from NYU outpatient neurology clinics.

During the calls, researchers collected information about sociodemographic factors and premorbid conditions; BMI; changes in neurologic symptoms; and quality of life related to fatigue, anxiety and depression. They also conducted the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention (AMPP) questionnaire and Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6) and followed-up with participants within 12 to 19 months.

According to results, significant reductions from baseline to 12 months were reported in AMPP number of headache days in the last month (P = .0001) and in Neuro-Quality of Life (QoL) fatigue score (P = .0102).

After adjusting for age, sex and prior migraine history using mixed-effects models, researchers reported no significant difference in Neuro-QoL anxiety and Neuro-QoL depression T scores between baseline and 12 months or in HIT-6 score.

Overall, fatigue-related QoL and number of headache days significantly improved for those with headache after a median of 25.82 months, while headache-related QoL lagged compared with that related to anxiety and depression.

“These findings can help clinicians understand what is lagging in patients who are recovering from COVID-19,” Hyman said. “Patients who have concerns about anxiety and depression might want to talk to their doctors, and their doctors might flag them for certain kinds of care that could most efficiently help their symptoms.”