Postdromal symptoms in migraine: a REFORM study.

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Neuroscience
• Clinical Medicine

Background:

• Migraine is a neurovascular disorder characterized by headache and potential postdromal symptoms.
• Research on postdromal migraine symptoms is limited.
• Understanding postdromal symptoms is crucial for comprehensive migraine management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the prevalence of postdromal symptoms in migraine patients from a tertiary care unit.
• To assess the influence of different inquiry methods on reported postdromal symptom prevalence.
• To explore clinical factors associated with reporting postdromal symptoms and their impact on disease burden.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 631 adult migraine participants.
• Unprompted reporting of postdromal symptoms followed by a 16-item checklist for prompted reporting.
• Clinical characteristics were gathered via semi-structured interviews.
• Disease burden was assessed using HIT-6, MIDAS, and WHODAS 2.0 questionnaires.

Main Results:

• Prompted reporting identified a higher prevalence of postdromal symptoms (80.7%) compared to unprompted reporting (66.7%).
• The number of reported postdromal symptoms was significantly higher with prompted inquiry.
• Premonitory symptoms increased reporting likelihood, while more monthly migraine days decreased it.
• Weak correlations were found between postdromal symptom count and HIT-6/WHODAS scores, but not MIDAS.

Conclusions:

• Postdromal symptoms are prevalent in migraine patients treated at tertiary care centers.
• Prevalence estimates are influenced by the method of questioning, premonitory symptoms, and migraine frequency.
• Postdromal symptoms have a limited impact on the overall disease burden as measured by HIT-6 and WHODAS.