Migraine is first cause of disability in under 50s: will health politicians now take notice?

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s10194- 018- 0846- 2

[Section 1] A strength was its scope of enquiry, simultaneously into migraine, tension-type headache (TTH) and medication-overuse headache (MOH), the three headache dis- orders of major public-health importance.

In GBD 2016, the decision was made that burden attributed to MOH would be more correctly attributed to the antecedent disorders, in due proportion (73.4% to migraine, 26.6% to TTH, from a meta-analysis of three studies [115–117]).

All three contribute to the disability burden of migraine, and all three contribu- tions should be duly recognised. (We noted earlier that GBD does not consider dis- ability associated with the interictal state of headache disorders [91], although significant interictal burden is reported by many people with migraine [118]).

From GBD 2016 it is more evident than ever that headache disorders have a very

large detrimental effect on public health.

If studies contributing to GBD are standardized, future iterations of GBD may not only show the relative importance of headache in global public health but also monitor the benefits of improvements in headache care, new treatments and soci- etal change.

Acknowledgement A machine generated summary based on the work of Steiner, Timothy J.; Stovner, Lars J.; Vos, Theo; Jensen, R.; Katsarava, Z. 2018  in The Journal of Headache and Pain.

21st Century Headache: Mapping New Territory