Impact and Burden of Episodic, Acute Migraine (I-BEAM): A Patient Experience Study

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Poster presented at the 2020 American Headache Society (AHS) Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting.

Authors: Jessica Ailani, Sutapa Ray, John Hoekman, Stephen B. Shrewsbury

Objective:

To better understand: 1) To understand the experiences of individuals who suffer from migraines and how those experiences do or do not affect their daily lives. 2) To understand the typical pathways to migraine diagnosis and treatment and the drivers and barriers along the way. 3) To understand migraine sufferers’ satisfaction levels with current treatments and unmet needs as they pertain to desires for new therapies.

Methods:

Persons with migraine were recruited nationwide via social media and referrals. Data were collected using a combination of a 15-minute online quantitative survey and a one-hour qualitative interview, either as individual-depth interviews (IDIs) in three major US cities, or elsewhere as telephone-depth interviews (TDIs).

Results:

Study participants (N=50) were mostly females (98%), aged 30–49 years (74%). More than half (56%) reported 3–5 migraines/month representing 4–8 headache days/month, which were often likely to have a rapid onset (34%) and to occur in the early morning (24%). Although 96% of participants took a prescription migraine medication, only 6% were completely satisfied with their treatment—citing unacceptable speed of relief (with >50% reporting inability to resume normal activities within 4 hours after self-medicating), reliability, and duration of effect as reasons for dissatisfaction. Up to 68% of respondents reported headache relief lasting less than 12 hours with pain returning or worsening afterwards. Further, despite access to standard of care, 30% of respondents had to seek emergency migraine care in the past year. Thus, the social, societal and economic burden of episodic migraine significantly impacts the daily lives and livelihoods of patients with migraine.

Conclusions:

While research into migraine and its treatment has increased substantially in recent years, unmet needs still remain for treatment of migraine. Patients described their ideal medication as fast-acting (15–30 minutes), long-lasting (12–24 hour), providing complete or near-complete relief, effective when taken any time during the migraine, and having few or no side effects. Minor side effects would be acceptable as a tradeoff for faster onset of relief and improved efficacy. INP104 is being developed specifically to try and address these unmet needs.

Citation:

Ailani J, Shrewsbury SB, Hoekman, J and Ray S, Impact and Burden of Episodic, Acute Migraine (I-BEAM): A Patient Experience Study, 2020 American Headache Society (AHS) Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting.