A MULTINATIONAL INVESTIGATION OF THE IMPACT OF SUBCUTANEOUS SUMATRIPTAN .3. WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY AND NON-WORKPLACE ACTIVITY

This report presents the workplace productivity and non-workplace acti vity results of a multinational study of the effects of subcutaneous s umatriptan 6mg in the acute treatment of migraine compared with patien t's customary therapy. Patients diagnosed with migraine treated their symptoms for 24 weeks with subcutaneous sumatriptan after a 12-week pe riod of treating symptoms with their customary (non-sumatriptan) thera py. Patients used diary cards to record information concerning the eff ects of migraine on workplace productivity and non-workplace activity time. The average workplace productivity time lost was 23.4 hours per patient during 12 weeks of customary therapy, compared with 7.2 and 5. 8 hours per patient during the first and second 12-week periods of sum atriptan therapy, respectively. An average of 9.3 hours of non-workpla ce activity time was lost per patient during the customary therapy pha se, compared with 3.2 and 2.8 hours during the first and second 12-wee k periods of sumatriptan therapy, respectively. Treatment of migraine with subcutaneous sumatriptan compared with customary therapy was asso ciated with an average gain per patient of approximately 16 hours of w orkplace productivity time and 6 hours of non-workplace activity time, over a 3-month period.