[Prevalence of migraine in Germany.]

There are no valid data available for Germany on the prevalence of migraine using the new diagnostic and classification criteria of the International Headache Society (IHS).

Therefore, a survey on migraine prevalence was carried out on a representative sample of 2000 residents aged 16 to 69 years of the states of the former West Germany. The questionnaire incorporated the new criteria of the IHS and the diagnosis of migraine was based on the corresponding classification.

Some 23.4% of the sample suffered from headaches, and 3.6% were identified as having migraine according to the IHS classification. The prevalence of migraine was 5.3% in women and 1.7% in men. The highest prevalence of 5.7% was found in the group aged 40-49 years. By extending the 4-72 h IHS attack duration criterion to 2-72 h, the migraine prevalence increased from 3.6% to 4.4%.

For methodological reasons our study may underestimate the true prevalence of migraine in Germany. Taking our rather "conservative" figures into account, our study reveals, however, that there are more than 2 million migraine sufferers in Germany between 16 and 69 years of age.