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Opioid use among patients with migraine ‘alarmingly high’
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PHILADELPHIA — Opioid use continues to be “major issue” in adults with migraine, despite practices discouraging patients from using them, according to study results presented at the American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting.
Sait Ashina, MD, of Harvard Medical School and colleagues analyzed data from 21,143 patients with migraine who indicated their level of opioid use as part of an online survey. The mean age of patients in the study was 42 years; 74% were women and 72% were white.
Researchers found that among the 12,299 patients who reported 0 to 3 migraine headache days each month, 15% were current opioid users, 26% were former users and 59% never used opioids. Among the remaining patients — all who indicated 4 or more migraine headache days each month — 23.9% were current opioid users, 31.2% were former users and 44.9% never used opioids.
“Current opioid use remains alarmingly high. Future research should consider additional influences on opioid use, such as associated migraine symptoms (eg, allodynia), triptan use, and preventive medication use,” Ashina and colleagues wrote in an abstract.
“There remains a major issue with opioid use for migraine in the U.S., which underscores the continued need for improvements in migraine care,” they added. – by Janel Miller
Reference: Ashina S, et al. Opioid use among people with migraine: Results of the OVERCOME study. Presented at: American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting; July 11-14, 2019; Philadelphia.
Disclosures: Healio Primary Care was unable to determine the authors’ relevant financial disclosures prior to publication.