COST OF MIGRAINE MANAGEMENT - A PHARMACOECONOMIC OVERVIEW

Migraine is a chronic, sometimes debilitating, condition that tends to afflict young people who are otherwise healthy and productive, Becaus e diagnostic criteria and effective treatment modalities have not been well taught to physicians, the condition is often undiagnosed, misdia gnosed, and mismanaged, causing unnecessary pain, hardship to the indi vidual, disability, loss of productivity, and increased expense to the healthcare system. This paper discusses a rational approach to the be havioral and pharmacologic treatment of migraine, highlighting the rel ative costs of preventive and acute care therapies. Several cases are presented to illustrate how the costs of inefficiently managed migrain e therapy can be decreased even by using medications that have a highe r per-dose cost, as they decrease the pain and disability and actually lower the total cost of managing the patient with migraine.