Updated Estimates Put the Cost of Migraine at Nearly $9000 a Year

Patients in the United States with migraine had almost an additional $9000 a year in direct and indirect costs compared with demographically similar individuals without migraine, according to recent findings published in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain.

“Results from this real-world assessment of the economic burden of migraine suggest that migraine imposes a substantial direct and indirect cost burden in the United States,” researchers wrote.

The retrospective, observational cohort study identified adults with migraine in the Truven Health MarketScan Research Databases between January 2008 and June 2013 and matched them with patients with similar demographic variables but without migraine.

Mean annual direct all-cause health care costs were $6575 higher for people with migraine compared with those without. Mean annual indirect costs stemming from absenteeism and disability claims were $2350 higher in people with migraine. In all, patients with migraine had total annual direct and indirect costs $8924 higher than matched controls without migraine.

The study also found that patients with migraine had 1.94 times the odds of short-term disability claims, although those who took acute and/or preventive migraine medications were significantly less likely than patients with migraine who did not take medications to have short-term disability claims.

“Compared to matched nonmigraine patients, migraine patients were more likely to have work loss and longer periods of work loss, leading to significantly higher indirect costs,” researchers wrote. “Migraine patients also had higher levels of healthcare utilization, despite the relatively stable prevalence of migraine and the available acute and preventive treatment options for migraine management.” —Jolynn Tumolo