- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who suffer migraines often go without treatment
because they think doctors will not take them seriously, and because they
do not know there are drugs that can help them, experts said Monday. They
are often right about doctors' attitudes, the American Association for
the Study of Headache (AASH) and the International Headache Society (IHS)
said in a joint statement after a weekend meeting. ``Patients need to know
migraine is not all in their head,'' Dr. Keith Campbell, a past president
of the AASH who helped chair the meeting, said in a statement. ``Many physicians
fail to recognize migraine as a progressive, complex disease, or to appreciate
how debilitating the pain can be,'' he added. ``All too often physicians
view patients with migraine as complainers and send them away without adequate
treatment, telling them, 'it's only a headache. You have to learn to live
with it.''' There are both over-the-counter and prescription drugs approved
for migraine, but people still do not know about them, Campbell said. ``We
now have effective therapies for migraine but the biggest problem is that
people don't go to the doctor even when they have severe, disabling pain,
because they think nothing can be done, or they fear that the doctor will
not take them seriously,'' he said. Migraine, which affects up to three
times as many women as men, can be temporarily debilitating as sufferers
feel intense pain, nausea and an inability to tolerate light. Prevalence
rates vary by country, with people of European descent the most likely
to suffer. Dr. Richard Lipton, president-elect of the AASH, said one study
found that 59 percent of women and 71 percent of men never have been diagnosed
by a doctor for what they describe as migraine symptoms.
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