Impact of migraine and migraine therapy on productivity and quality of life.

Migraine is an expensive disorder in terms of lost productivity and its deleterious impact on health-related quality of life (QOL). In addition to lost wages and productivity due to absenteeism, many patients with migraine also experience reduced productivity while at work and disruption of their family, social, and leisure activities. Even a migraine of moderate intensity can impair function and productivity, which emphasizes the importance of therapy that achieves complete, as opposed to partial, pain relief. Rapid onset of complete relief with abatement of migraine-associated symptoms has been reported to be most relevant for patient QOL and satisfaction with migraine therapy. Several instruments have been developed for measuring health-related QOL. Both general and migraine-specific instruments have been useful in assessing the impact of migraine and migraine therapy on health-related QOL; migraine-specific instruments may be more sensitive in measuring the effects of pharmacologic intervention. Compared with placebo, rizatriptan improved productivity in migraine patients. Compared with usual care, rizatriptan had favorable effects on all five domains of the 24-Hour Migraine Quality of Life questionnaire.